Adventurous, humorous, and magical.
Retellings of three classic fairy tales—“Rapunzel,” “Cinderella,” and “Sleeping Beauty”—with a Muslim twist.
Golden-skinned, dark-haired Rumaysa was taken from her parents by a witch, trapped in a tower in an enchanted forest, and forced to spin straw into gold. Her only friend is Zabina, an owl. Inspired to make a very long hijab to help her escape, Rumaysa is lowering herself to the ground when she meets Suleiman, a lost boy in possession of a magic carpet, sent by his parents to search for a princess taken by a dragon. In the second of these three interconnected stories, Rumaysa meets brown-skinned, curly-haired Ayla in Qamaroon. She’s an orphan who lives with her demanding stepmother and stepsisters. Rumaysa helps Ayla transform herself for the royal Eid ball, where Ayla meets the prince. But fearful of being caught by her stepmother, she runs off, leaving one golden shoe behind. Finally, Rumaysa is transported to a tower guarded by a dragon, where Princess Sara, who has warm brown skin and “a beautiful big body,” is under a sleeping spell. There she also runs into Suleiman. Working together, Rumaysa and Suleiman defeat the villain and reunite the princess with her parents. Rather than focus on happily-ever-afters or romance, Hafiza portrays the women in her story as strong, independent, and clever. Suleiman has his own journey of pushing back against gender expectations. Cultural elements are seamlessly woven in, and grayscale illustrations punctuate the text.
Adventurous, humorous, and magical. (Fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9781529038309
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Dizzyingly silly.
The famous superhero returns to fight another villain with all the trademark wit and humor the series is known for.
Despite the title, Captain Underpants is bizarrely absent from most of this adventure. His school-age companions, George and Harold, maintain most of the spotlight. The creative chums fool around with time travel and several wacky inventions before coming upon the evil Turbo Toilet 2000, making its return for vengeance after sitting out a few of the previous books. When the good Captain shows up to save the day, he brings with him dynamic action and wordplay that meet the series’ standards. The Captain Underpants saga maintains its charm even into this, the 11th volume. The epic is filled to the brim with sight gags, toilet humor, flip-o-ramas and anarchic glee. Holding all this nonsense together is the author’s good-natured sense of harmless fun. The humor is never gross or over-the-top, just loud and innocuous. Adults may roll their eyes here and there, but youngsters will eat this up just as quickly as they devoured every other Underpants episode.
Dizzyingly silly. (Humor. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-50490-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
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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