A beautiful celebration of Hawai‘i, including family, community, history, and the land.
A girl tries to make things better with the help of a little magic but only makes her life more complicated.
Clara grew up moving all over the U.S. thanks to her mother’s military job, but following her parents’ divorce, she’s lived with Tūtū, her grandmother, on the island of O‘ahu in Hawai‘i. She’s happy there, but recent family tension over her dad’s move to Arizona has been stressful. Worse, her best friend, Leo, ditched her at the beginning of sixth grade. One night, lonely Clara asks a question of her family’s heirloom ‘umeke, a special wooden bowl: “What are boys thinking?” On the school bus the next morning, she discovers that she can hear the boys’ thoughts. Clara tries to use her new power to solve her friendship problems (for example, getting Leo’s friends to stop teasing her), but she causes more trouble for everyone. Vowing to fix everything before Dad moves her to Phoenix, Clara learns, with the guidance of trusted adults, to truly listen and open up to different perspectives. She forges new friendships and unearths feelings about her home and the family she’ll be leaving behind. This heartfelt story centers around listening both to others and your own heart. Clara and new friend Pua struggle with belonging; both girls are Native Hawaiian but grew up on the mainland. ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i, the Hawaiian language, is woven throughout the text, which captures the rhythms of local speech.
A beautiful celebration of Hawai‘i, including family, community, history, and the land. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 14, 2024
ISBN: 9780063045354
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
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
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
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