Funny fare realistically exploring feelings.
A fifth grader and her cat magically swap bodies.
After a particularly embarrassing day at middle school when she was laughed at and her friends didn’t stand up for her, Poppy McBean is sharing all her problems with the best listener she knows: her cat, Mitten Man. When she wishes she had his awesome, easy life, she suddenly magically transforms into Mitten Man’s feline self! Even more surprising, Mitten Man now inhabits Poppy’s body (and is from then on referred to as “Big Poppy”), and the two can communicate telepathically but only when looking at each other. Through alternating first-person narratives, readers follow girl and cat as they embark on strange new adventures and learn about each other, themselves, and what it means to be a good friend. There’s a slow start, but once the characters are a bit more settled in their new bodies, the pace picks up. Big Poppy is not great at thinking about others and makes many cringeworthy decisions. As “Old Poppy” (human girl Poppy in cat form) helplessly watches her friendships ruined, she winds up on a dangerous rescue mission involving a stray cat and a turtle that amps up the drama. There is plenty of humor throughout, but it’s the realistically imperfect friendships that give the book depth and heart. Poppy is assumed White; names imply some ethnic diversity among her friends.
Funny fare realistically exploring feelings. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: July 25, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-79721-506-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
A pleasing premise for book lovers.
A fantasy-loving bookworm makes a wonderful, terrible bargain.
When sixth grader Poppy Woodlock’s historic preservationist parents move the family to the Oregon coast to work on the titular stately home, Poppy’s sure she’ll find magic. Indeed, the exiled water nymph in the manor’s ruined swimming pool grants a wish, but: “Magic isn’t free. It cosssts.” The price? Poppy’s favorite book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In return she receives Sampson, a winged lion cub who is everything Poppy could have hoped for. But she soon learns that the nymph didn’t take just her own physical book—she erased Narnia from Poppy’s world. And it’s just the first loss: Soon, Poppy’s grandmother’s journal’s gone, then The Odyssey, and more. The loss is heartbreaking, but Sampson’s a wonderful companion, particularly as Poppy’s finding middle school a tough adjustment. Hartman’s premise is beguiling—plenty of readers will identify with Poppy, both as a fellow bibliophile and as a kid struggling to adapt. Poppy’s repeatedly expressed faith that unveiling Sampson will bring some sort of vindication wears thin, but that does not detract from the central drama. It’s a pity that the named real-world books Poppy reads are notably lacking in diversity; a story about the power of literature so limited in imagination lets both itself and readers down. Main characters are cued White; there is racial diversity in the supporting cast. Chapters open with atmospheric spot art. (This review has been updated to reflect the final illustrations.)
A pleasing premise for book lovers. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9780316448222
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
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