{"id":40643,"date":"2024-06-26T21:29:22","date_gmt":"2024-06-27T01:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=40643"},"modified":"2024-06-26T21:29:22","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T01:29:22","slug":"review-of-willodeen-by-katherine-applegate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=40643","title":{"rendered":"Review of Willodeen, by Katherine Applegate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Willodeen<\/em><\/p>\n

by Katherine Applegate
\nillustrations by Charles Santoso<\/p>\n

Feiwel and Friends, 2021. 263 pages.
\nReview written January 7, 2022, from a library book
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

This is a sweet and poignant fantasy for younger readers with a strong theme about how life is interconnected. In less skilled hands, it would be a Message Book. As it is, this lovely story has a strong theme.<\/p>\n

Willodeen lives in a village in a world with creatures unlike those in our world. She\u2019s narrating the story, and tells us this:<\/p>\n

I suppose I always loved strange beasts. Even as a wee child, I was drawn to them.<\/p>\n

The scarier, the smellier, the uglier, the better.<\/p>\n

Of course, I was kindly disposed toward all of earth\u2019s creatures. Birds and bats, toads and cats, slimy and scaly, noble and humble.<\/p>\n

But I especially loved the unlovable ones. The ones folks called pests. Vermin. Monsters,<\/em> even.<\/p>\n

My favorites were called screechers. They screamed at night like demented roosters, for no reason anyone could ever make out.<\/p>\n

They were grumpy as tired toddlers. They were sloppy as hungry hogs.<\/p>\n

And \u2013 I guess there\u2019s no nice way to put it \u2013 they stank to high heaven.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Willodeen\u2019s family was killed in the Great September Fire, and now she lives with two ladies who are healers. She doesn\u2019t like large groups of people and feels like she never got the lesson on what to say when. But she watches the creatures who live around her village. <\/p>\n

The other folks of the village love the hummingbears \u2013 adorable little bear-like creatures with silvery wings that make bubble nests in the blue willows by the river. They have a grand Faire every year when the hummingbears nest. Willodeen has her own hummingbear who was injured in the fire and can no longer fly long distances.<\/p>\n

But recently, there are fewer creatures in the forest. The Council put a bounty on screechers because of their terrible smell. Willodeen is horrified when the last one she has seen in months gets shot by a bounty hunter.<\/p>\n

Then a boy who crafts little model creatures makes her a little screecher on her birthday. And that day, Willodeen discovers a baby screecher. Can they keep it hidden from the hunters?<\/p>\n

Then when hummingbears are missing from the town \u2013 but nest in the trees where their screecher feeds at the roots \u2013 Willodeen wonders if there is a connection.<\/p>\n

Willodeen is a wonderful lovable character who pulls you into this story. You\u2019ll find yourself loving the stinky screechers, too.<\/p>\n

This is a gentle story with a strong punch.<\/p>\n

katherineapplegate.com<\/a>
\nmackids.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n

*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I\u2019m posting the oldest reviews I\u2019ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They\u2019re still good books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Willodeen by Katherine Applegate illustrations by Charles Santoso Feiwel and Friends, 2021. 263 pages. Review written January 7, 2022, from a library book Starred Review This is a sweet and poignant fantasy for younger readers with a strong theme about how life is interconnected. In less skilled hands, it would be a Message Book. As […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,9,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childrens-fiction-review","category-fantasy","category-starred-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40643"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43912,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40643\/revisions\/43912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}