This absorbing and electrifying dystopian tale will appeal to all ages.
A 12-year-old boy braves a treacherous post-apocalyptic world to track down his missing father in Watts’ debut middle-grade novel.
Huey was born a full century after global nuclear devastation and raised in a bunker. When his father is late returning from a supply run, Huey reluctantly leaves his secure home (“Inside, safe. Outside, dangerous”) to find him. It’s the first time he’s been on the blistering hot, desertlike surface alone; his first stop is the Square, a trading post he and his father frequent. The only answers he finds are from BRiN, a supercomputer from “the Before Time.” BRiN knows where Huey’s father is but will only tell him if he delivers a package to the “D’pot” a few days’ journey away. That package is fellow tween Hope, an “immaculate” who was not born, like numerous others, with physical mutations (courtesy of radioactive fallout). Huey’s sandy road ahead is rife with challenges, including merciless heat, sandstorms, giant insects, and a girl who clearly doesn’t want to go to the place he’s escorting her to. Watts caters to younger readers with this delightful adventure. While the story unfolds in a scary world teeming with menaces, the cast is dynamic and scenes never linger on violence. The adolescent hero, whose breezy first-person narration propels the narrative, is endearing. He sympathizes with all animals, including the colossal scorpions that he’s smart enough to avoid, and learns from his mistakes. Pop-culture nods are manifold, stemming from the nuclear blasts hitting in the mid-1980s; Huey, who always carries his Walkman (with Huey Lewis and the News’ album Sportson cassette), discovers new music outside the bunker. (Many characters are named after things directly referencing the 1980s, from clothing brands to a video game console.) While this novel ends with a gratifying resolution, a sequel is both possible and welcome.
This absorbing and electrifying dystopian tale will appeal to all ages.Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Donovan Street Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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