While some mild moralizing creeps in at times, this real world–based animal fantasy delivers resonant lessons in...
In this sequel, five dogs and two cats, who previously collaborated on a theatrical endeavor, travel to New Zealand to put on a show.
In her first children’s book, Sieglinde C. Othmer (Whims, Wits, and Whiskers, 2012, etc.), a published scholar of clinical psychiatry and psychology, combined her professional background and passion for animals in a humorous, pet-centered tale promoting friendship, personal growth, and creativity. The dogs and cats, who staged a production in a Missouri forest in their debut outing, continue learning life lessons in this sequel. The group takes its creative talents much farther afield—to a sheep farm in New Zealand. The animals’ new show has a purpose: to raise awareness for endangered kiwi birds. Transported to New Zealand in baskets carried by giant condors (a highly enjoyable bit of whimsy), the band includes wise Mr. Guinness, a Lab/pit bull; tenderhearted, shy Lexi, a Shih Tzu; Bailey, a peaceable Lab; the smart and snarky terrier Rosie; brash, hyperactive, and gassy George, a basset hound/beagle mix; French-speaking black cat Miles; and tabby Cosmo. Making new friends on the sheep farm, the group learns that stoats are threatening the kiwis in their forest habitat. Bashful Lexi is in the spotlight, finding strength through her compassion for the not-so-evil stoats and leading the band to a solution that works for all. As the story unfolds, the animals learn and grow while confronting and comforting one another through various conflicts, challenges, and triumphs. These vividly depicted, humanlike animal characters—who can use computers, wield paintbrushes, sing, and dance—are stand-ins for readers of any age struggling with similar self-doubts or other anxieties. Although a tone of benign lecturing is more prevalent here than in the preceding book, the author’s captivating alternative reality resonates with reassurance and coping strategies. Rosean (Whims, Wits, and Whiskers, 2012) again offers witty visual accompaniments to the text with deftly rendered ink and graphite drawings. Small images of flora and fauna, sketched with realistic details by debut illustrator Julia Othmer, are sprinkled throughout. (A warning: when overwhelmed by emotions, George uses the words “damn” and “bastards.”)
While some mild moralizing creeps in at times, this real world–based animal fantasy delivers resonant lessons in character-building and conflict resolution with humor and heart.Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5462-1277-5
Page Count: 276
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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