An often engaging but unevenly executed story of a girl in hiding.
A tween lives with her grandmother in an over-55 community in Depner’s middle-grade series starter.
Ten-year-old Fernsnickle Hooves does her best to keep herself hidden in the strict retirement community where she lives with her grandmother, Rose. Fernsnickle has lived with Rose since she was a baby; her parents left her there when they had nowhere to live; their experience of homelessness, Fernsnickle explains, was the perfect cover for their day jobs as CIA agents. She keeps out of sight of the neighbors, who are known for enforcing the community’s rules, which don’t allow anyone younger than 55 to live there. Rose smuggles her to school each day in a bike trailer, using their dog as cover. When sightless Mr. Huckleberry moves into a nearby unit, Fernsnickle assumes that she won’t have to hide from him, but when Mr. Huckleberry drops off an invitation for her and her grandmother to have dinner with him, it’s clear that he knows that Rose has a housemate. After considering their options, they venture out and discover that Mr. Huckleberry is also harboring an underage resident: his grandson. A friendship between the two families develops, and Rose and Mr. Huckleberry collaborate to keep their grandchildren from community leaders’ notice. But tragedy strikes when the four take a vacation to the Grand Canyon, and Fernsnickle has to rely on Rose’s contingency plans. The book’s premise is an engaging one, and Fernsnickle and Rose have an affectionate but not overly sentimental relationship. Some of the girl’s all-caps linguistic habits (“NOBODY, SNOWBODY, FOEBODY”; “SUPER, DUPER, ASTALAPOOPER”) may wear on the reader over the course of the book. However, her blend of innocence and independence is compelling. At times, Depner’s approach is notably thoughtful, as when Fernsnickle describes how her parents and others deal with being houseless. That said, the book often stretches the bounds of plausibility, particularly regarding Rose’s fate, in ways that young readers may accept but others may find grating. The conclusion makes it clear that there are more adventures in Fernsnickle’s future.
An often engaging but unevenly executed story of a girl in hiding.Pub Date: July 27, 2021
ISBN: 979-8542970486
Page Count: 152
Publisher: Independently Published
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
