A coming-of-age story blossoming with tender honesty and hope.
A girl with a green thumb uproots herself from her isolated island home in search of a rare plant to cure her dying papa.
Twelve years ago, the Orange Boat (which hasn’t carried oranges since the Great Soil Blight) brought an unexpected delivery to Earth’s End, a forgotten corner of the Gardenia Isles. Neither of Henna’s papas expected to receive a baby in the mail. Henna knows all about her family’s story, and she thought she knew everything about Papa Niall and Papa Joaquim too until she discovers seasonal allergies aren’t what’s making Papa Niall sick this year but the resurgence of a terminal illness. Determined to save him, Henna embarks on a secret mission at St. Basil’s Conservatory, an elite horticulture boarding school where she hopes to find and steal from a heavily guarded repository the last remaining seeds of the nightwalker, a plant rumored to produce a miracle healing elixir. Humor and a suspenseful adventure balance the sensitive, aching exploration of loss. Sun-bronzed, dark-haired Henna lives in a racially diverse world. Henna; her genderfluid friend, P; and their roommate, Lora, who uses a wheelchair for mobility, face various barriers of accessibility at the school. Each of them has their own goals, but they learn to affirm and ally with one another to challenge injustice. Dairman’s careful use of details sets up an emotionally fulfilling, bittersweet resolution.
A coming-of-age story blossoming with tender honesty and hope. (author’s note) (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: March 14, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-5362-2480-1
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
A warm bundle of holiday cheer.
In a funny, feel-good tale, 12-year-old twins separated at birth meet by chance and try to pull off a family switch during the December holidays.
The girls, who are cued white, agree that it would be a delicious prank, but each has a personal motive, too: Aviva Davis, who was adopted by a culturally Jewish mom and a Black dad who was raised Christian, wonders what it’s like to celebrate Christmas. Budding author Holly Martin, who was adopted by a white-presenting single mom, sees a golden opportunity to gather experiences for a school writing assignment about facing her fears. In a plot as sweet as a Hanukkah jelly doughnut and twisty as a Christmas cinnamon roll, the pair just manages to bail one another out of a string of sticky situations—both hilarious and otherwise. They both learn something of the customs and meaning of the two holidays while working through tears and laughter—not to mention conflicts sparked by their very different personalities. Everything culminates in a holiday performance at a local senior center that will have readers rising up to cheer them on. Though their history remains tantalizingly mysterious, for the protagonists, who narrate alternating chapters, it’s mission accomplished and more: Aviva emerges feeling more secure in her Jewish identity, while anxious Holly discovers unexpected depths of courage.
A warm bundle of holiday cheer. (song lyrics) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2024
ISBN: 9781250360670
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
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