A topical ode to truth-telling and community.
Cinzia loves Siannerra, a bustling city of diverse people and stories.
She’s especially passionate about her job as apprentice to printer Mestra Arrone and dreams of following in her footsteps. When they publish evidence of criminal activity within the royal family, and her mestra is imprisoned, Cinzia flees, encountering young Contessina Elena. The isolated Elena is considered odd and standoffish by her subjects, yet she longs to know her city and its people. The girls become caught in a web of political intrigue and urban corruption as they work to expose treachery and make a better world. They’re helped by spirited pirate Carlotta and Aneeqah, a hijabi apprentice papermaker. The star of the show is Siannerra itself: Drawn in warm jewel tones and embellished with charming details, the Renaissance Italy–influenced metropolis is as alive and changeable as any of its people. Bi’s meticulous, lively art captures the bustling streets and a sense of adventure around every corner. The character designs are endearing, and there’s a dynamic sense of movement, particularly in the way Cinzia navigates her world as a cane user whose disability never excludes her from the action. Elena’s neurodivergence is presented as an asset, her unique way of looking at the world a strength. The girls’ connection is sweet, but too little time is spent developing it. Cinzia has light-brown skin; Elena has dark-brown skin, and the girls inhabit a racially diverse world.
A topical ode to truth-telling and community. (author’s note) (Graphic fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 21, 2023
ISBN: 9780063027107
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 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
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
Plays to Rowling’s fan base; equally suited for gifting and reading aloud or alone.
A 7-year-old descends into the Land of the Lost in search of his beloved comfort object.
Jack has loved Dur Pig long enough to wear the beanbag toy into tattered shapelessness—which is why, when his angry older stepsister chucks it out the car window on Christmas Eve, he not only throws a titanic tantrum and viciously rejects the titular replacement pig, but resolves to sneak out to find DP. To his amazement, the Christmas Pig offers to guide him to the place where all lost Things go. Whiffs of childhood classics, assembled with admirable professionalism into a jolly adventure story that plays all the right chords, hang about this tale of loss and love. Along with family drama, Rowling stirs in fantasy, allegory, and generous measures of social and political commentary. Pursued by the Land’s cruel and monstrous Loser, Jack and the Christmas Pig pass through territories from the Wastes of the Unlamented, where booger-throwing Bad Habits roam, to the luxurious City of the Missed for encounters with Hope, Happiness, and Power (a choleric king who rejects a vote that doesn’t go his way). A joyful reunion on the Island of the Beloved turns poignant, but Christmas Eve being “a night for miracles and lost causes,” perhaps there’s still a chance (with a little help from Santa) for everything to come right? In both the narrative and Field’s accomplished, soft-focus illustrations, the cast presents White.
Plays to Rowling’s fan base; equally suited for gifting and reading aloud or alone. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-79023-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2021
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