An exhausting misfire.
Creating their own time machine, two girls visit the past in adult novelist Poore’s (Reincarnation Blues, 2017) debut for children.
After fifth grader Amy is struck by lightning, she sees odd symbols floating above peoples’ heads and discovers she can communicate telepathically with the mute friend whose abusive father left her unable to move volitionally or to speak, except to say Moo, so that’s what Amy calls her. When Moo and Amy take shelter from a thunderstorm in a dilapidated cottage in the woods (maybe it’s home to a witch), the musty furnishings, especially a clock, inspire Amy to experiment with time travel. Moo, now strengthening, joins in. Testing their theories, the girls travel back to 1989, where the intriguing time-travel premise devolves into white noise, and frenetic adventures ensue. Tone and pacing are inconsistent, with noisy, picture-book cadences, Vonnegut-esque musings, and metafictional asides from the omniscient narrator. The broad humor plays fast and loose with ethics. Amy shoplifts a hoodie as an “experiment”; a planned return is mentioned, then dropped. She’s had two years to learn Moo’s real name but has never asked. Graphically conveyed incidents of child neglect and abuse interrupt the breezy fantasy, yet little is at stake for these characters. Time travel might change events, but the people involved remain static; their identities, not their choices, determine their fates. Characters are default white.
An exhausting misfire. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-64416-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
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
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
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