Begins with a familiar tale but creatively travels down a different path.
Cinderella’s hitherto unknown youngest stepsister becomes the protagonist of this psychologically astute fairy-tale adaptation.
Queen Ella has now been married and ruling her country for six years. Beloved by her subjects, she dons her special glass footwear annually for the grand ball. Her wicked stepmother is dead, and the two cruel, older stepsisters have been exiled to a remote peninsula. But their younger sister, just a little girl at the time of the legendary events, lives with the royal family in the castle. Still, 11-year-old Tirza is always unsure of her status; the young princes love her, but she’s hidden away and not treated as an equal within the family. She also feels guilty about not being able to help her sisters in exile. Tirza’s only friend is Aden, the stable boy who also sells cupcakes in the castle. However, Dame Yaffa, the cupcake baker, turns out to have ulterior motives and nefarious goals, and when the slippers go missing, Tirza is accused of stealing them. The mystery of the thief’s identity becomes a focus of the book, but questions of women’s clout, family loyalty, and sisterly relationships play equally important roles. All characters are presumed White in this engrossing novel that injects originality into a familiar medieval European setting as it explores sibling rivalries of different stripes.
Begins with a familiar tale but creatively travels down a different path. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: April 5, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-17887-4
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Jan. 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2022
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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