Kindl, who brought readers the perfectly droll Owl in Love (1993) and the magically metaphoric Woman in the Wall (1997), this time offers a winsome and wickedly funny fairytale fractured in multiple places. Taking elements freely from a handful—at least—of familiar fairytales, she's made one of energy and spirit and no small amount of high hilarity. When the tale opens, the Goose Girl, the narrator, is stuck in a tower, kept prisoner because she doesn't like her prospective marital choices. The Prince is sweet but dim; and the King is wicked and blackhearted. The Goose Girl, whose name is actually Alexandria Aurora Fortunato, has been blessed with a number of attributes that could be useful: her tears are diamonds, and when she combs her hair, gold dust falls from it. But, she finds this all to be a pain, and she suspects the royal men's interest in her stems from her profitability. She escapes the tower because her 12 geese rescue her, and she continues to have adventures fending off ogresses (one with two heads) and escaping from capture and imprisonment, alone as well as with the feckless prince, whose heart has led him in search of her and whose mouth gets them in deeper trouble with great regularity. The geese pop up regularly, too, and Alexandria's golden hair has a recurring role as an escape tool. When true love blossoms, the Goose Girl is found to be royal, and her geese freed to be her sisters once again, readers will rejoice. Running the gamut from quiet chuckles to laugh-out-loud guffaws, this promises delight in great profusion to generations of readers now and to come. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-618-03377-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2001
Certain to provoke controversy and difficult to see as a book for children, who could easily miss the painful point.
After Hitler appoints Bruno’s father commandant of Auschwitz, Bruno (nine) is unhappy with his new surroundings compared to the luxury of his home in Berlin.
The literal-minded Bruno, with amazingly little political and social awareness, never gains comprehension of the prisoners (all in “striped pajamas”) or the malignant nature of the death camp. He overcomes loneliness and isolation only when he discovers another boy, Shmuel, on the other side of the camp’s fence. For months, the two meet, becoming secret best friends even though they can never play together. Although Bruno’s family corrects him, he childishly calls the camp “Out-With” and the Fuhrer “Fury.” As a literary device, it could be said to be credibly rooted in Bruno’s consistent, guileless characterization, though it’s difficult to believe in reality. The tragic story’s point of view is unique: the corrosive effect of brutality on Nazi family life as seen through the eyes of a naïf. Some will believe that the fable form, in which the illogical may serve the objective of moral instruction, succeeds in Boyne’s narrative; others will believe it was the wrong choice.
Certain to provoke controversy and difficult to see as a book for children, who could easily miss the painful point. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2006
ISBN: 0-385-75106-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: David Fickling/Random
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
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