Amusing, if a little clunky.
Eleven-year-old witch Della Dupree must muster all her courage when she’s stranded in the 13th century.
If only Della were brave enough to stand up against the school bullies. But Della knows that if she does, the mean girls will turn on her next. It’s already hard enough to share a name with the famous Della Dupree, who founded Ruthersfield Academy in 1223 to educate witches. Della lives in a Britain where nonmagical people know about and love witches, and her own nonwitchy family is supportive. But what if Della were to travel back in time to meet the historic Della, and what if she were to learn what it’s like to live in a time when witches are hated and feared? Della’s soon stranded in 1223, having lost the magical necklace that enabled her spur-of-the-moment illicit jaunt into the past. As Lowe writes it, history smells atrocious and features hideous food—one particularly “nasty pottage” prompts Della to make a quick magical lasagna, and a disgusting pheasant stew leads her to magic up a chicken curry—but the witch girls Della meets are lovely. She just wishes she were brave enough to save them from the dungeon. In the mildly anachronistic past of her apparently all-white village of Potts Bottom, Della finds her spunk. Slightly awkward prose with odd explanatory asides distracts from both humor and pacing, but scenes in which these medieval characters first experience modern food are mouthwatering.
Amusing, if a little clunky. (recipes, crafts) (Fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-4367-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A classic sibling rivalry tale that still satisfies to the last drop.
In this graphic novel adaptation of Davies’ 2007 book, hurt feelings propel an intense business battle.
Fourth grader Evan can’t stand the thought of his brainy younger sister, Jessie, skipping a grade and joining his class this fall. Intelligent but emotionally immature, Jessie sometimes misses social cues and wishes she could be more like the gregarious Evan. These insecurities set the stage for a contest to see who can raise the most money selling lemonade this summer. Will Jessie’s book smarts beat Evan’s people skills? The beauty of this story lies in how each sibling’s strengths rub off on the other: Evan brushes up on his math, while Jessie tentatively makes a new friend. De la Vega’s polished cartoon artwork creatively translates Davies’ metaphors to a visual medium. When the author compares the “mean words inside Evan…fighting to get out” to bats, illustrations depict the furry animals emerging from beneath his shirt; Jessie’s negative thoughts take the form of a tiny purple creature irritatingly tapping her shoulder. Tender scenes depict flashbacks of the siblings supporting each other through their parents’ divorce. The book has business savvy to match the emotional beats (each chapter opens with an entrepreneurial definition that relates to the plot), and several scenes feature math problems that readers can solve for themselves. Evan and Jessie appear white; both have friends of color.
A classic sibling rivalry tale that still satisfies to the last drop. (business tips) (Graphic fiction. 8-10)Pub Date: April 29, 2025
ISBN: 9780063310407
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
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