FERNSNICKLE HOOVES MAKES WAVES

Ten-year-old Fernsnickle Hooves arrives at her new “Home-School-Away-from-Home” in Miami and makes new friends at camp in Depner’s follow-up to The Everyday Adventures of Fernsnickle Hooves (2021).

Mrs. Peabody, the owner of the academy known as Oasis, gives newcomer Fernsnickle a tour of her sprawling new home and school after the girl arrives by train. Over cucumber and watercress sandwiches, Mrs. Peabody reveals that Fernsnickle’s recently deceased Grandma Rose was a domestic servant for the Peabodys after dropping out of school at age 16. (Whenever Fernsnickle is surprised at some good fortune, she remembers Grandma Rose, who used to say “you just NEVER know!”) The next morning, Fernsnickle meets fellow student Alison Peabody, who’s distantly related to Mrs. Peabody, and Capt. Whit, who takes the girls by boat to an island called Camp Colorado, located just off the Florida Keys. She gets annoyed by Alison’s quirks, and they inspire a deeply flawed idea for an entry in the Science Fiction Science Fair, which rewards imagination more than scientific know-how. Fernsnickle finds that the girls’ education is focused on studying their interests, creative projects, reading, and field trips. She starts the Girls Working Together for a Better World Club with her new friends, and they all enter a Talent Show, which sets up the third book in the series. Over the course of the book, Depner is adept at weaving in discussions of social issues; for example, Fernsnickle is quite forthright on educating others on the downsides of smoking, and there’s even a brief financial literacy lesson on saving and investing. She also visits shelters for people without homes, but the book might have been improved by more detailed and emotional observations about those living there. Overall, the book is fun and fast-paced. However, despite its complex plot, it suffers from a general lack of depth. The problems involving the Science Fiction Science Fair are resolved too quickly, for example, and aside from Alison, readers don’t really get to know any of the other girls at Oasis.

A wholesome but lightweight story of a girl navigating a new environment.