A well-rounded novel about the importance of home that will have young readers excited about STEM.
The new kid brings a bright new spark to an old town in Pashley’s middle-grade novel.
Seventh grader and inventor Mindy Bright may have roots in Oglesby, Illinois, the rural town where her father grew up and her late grandmother lived, but she feels like a stranger when she moves in. The most alien thing about her new home is the school, Korn Wotel, which is housed in an old motel that was repurposed after the original school burned down 40 years ago. Mindy has trouble fitting in at first, when a classmate named Derek puts gum in her hair on the school bus. She quickly becomes the target of gentle mockery from the other students. She in turn judges them for their faded clothing and country ways. (“She felt like the shiny new screw in a jar of rusty old nails.”) As she tries to navigate this new social scene, Mindy is paired up with a boy named Charlie to create a booth for the school’s annual fall carnival. The carnival is the school’s main fundraiser, and boy, does the Korn Wotel need it: They’re barely able to keep the lights on, much less make necessary repairs and improvements. Mindy is excited to put her engineering skills to the test but keeps stumbling in her relationship with Charlie until it feels like she’s ruined their burgeoning friendship. She has to put all her skills to the test—both social and STEM—to save her partnership and her school at the carnival. Pashley’s debut will have readers rooting for Mindy even as they wince at her mistakes. Mindy is both eager and fallible, and thus relatable as she works out where she belongs in the long term. The narrative is evenly paced with pleasant surprises, such as Mindy’s classmates’ friendliness and the appearances of quirky characters like Ms. Caster and Locker Boy. Pashley seamlessly integrates Mindy’s STEM projects so that they appear as part of the overall fabric of her life, making for easy inspiration for scientific-minded readers.
A well-rounded novel about the importance of home that will have young readers excited about STEM.Pub Date: June 1, 2024
ISBN: 9798218961749
Page Count: 237
Publisher: STEMpire Press
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.
In Florence’s middle-grade fantasy novel, a young girl’s heart is tested in the face of an evil, spreading Darkness.
Eleven-year-old Lydia, “freckle-cheeked and round-eyed, with hair the color of pine bark and fair skin,” is struggling with the knowledge that she has reached the age to apprentice as an herbalist. Lydia is reluctant to leave her beloved, magical Mulberry Glen and her cozy Housetree in the woods—she’ll miss Garder, the Glen’s respected philosopher; her fairy guardian Pit; her human friend Livy; and even the mischievous part-elf, part-imp, part-human twins Zale and Zamilla. But the twins go missing after hearing of a soul-sapping Darkness that has swallowed a forest and is creeping into minds and engulfing entire towns. They have secretly left to find a rare fruit that, it is said, will stop the Darkness if thrown into the heart of the mountain that rises out of the lethal forest. Lydia follows, determined to find the twins before they, too, fall victim to the Darkness. During her journey, accompanied by new friends, she gradually realizes that she herself has a dangerous role to play in the quest to stop the Darkness. In this well-crafted fantasy, Florence skillfully equates the physical manifestation of Darkness with the feelings of insecurity and powerlessness that Lydia first struggles with when thinking of leaving the Glen. Such negative thoughts grow more intrusive the closer she and her friends come to the Darkness—and to Lydia’s ultimate, powerfully rendered test of character, which leads to a satisfyingly realistic, not quite happily-ever-after ending. Highlights include a delightfully haunting, reality-shifting library and a deft sprinkling of Latin throughout the text; Pit’s pet name for Lydia is mea flosculus (“my little flower”). Fine-lined ink drawings introducing each chapter add a pleasing visual element to this well-grounded fairy tale.
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781956393095
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Waxwing Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
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