Juniper Berry (utgåvan 2012)

If you like a book that is on the scary side, then you will certainly enjoy Juniper Berry by M.P. Kozlowsky. Fans of Coraline will be thrilled to find another book about a world that is off kilter and eerie. I would recommend this book to kids at the end of elementary school through middle school. Some kids might be too terrified by it, but anyone that likes stories that make their knees knock will find it to be a unique read. I thought it was a fast paced book, and I was definitely curious to see how everything would turn out in the end. Juniper is a girl who believes in being kind to others. I also liked that she was brave and clever throughout the book. I must say the cover first drew me to this book, but the interesting storyline kept me reading. ( )

Love the cover and artwork. Love the name Juniper Berry. Love a good moral lesson. Be happy with who you are. Don't make a pact with the devil, or whatever creature lurks underground beneath a creepy tree.

Juniper Berry's parents are first rate celebrities and they have a huge mansion with fans drooling outside the gates to prove it. The problem is that they haven't been the loving parents they once were for quite some time. A little sleuthing and a chance meeting with a boy suffering the same fate with his parents, leads to a mysterious tree in the woods. Together Juniper and Giles enter the tree to discover what it is that draws their parents there. It's a classic case of 'You help me. I'll help you'. But as stories have foretold for centuries, these bargains always end up one-sided.

Poor Juniper is a lonely child. She has no life. Her once loving parents can't seem to stand her anymore. They brush her aside like a spect of dust. All she wants is her family back. You have to feel sorry for this poor soul. She is such a sweet girl and doesn't deserve such crappy parents. In the end, when she can have or be anything, she chooses only to have her parents back as they were. And then, instead of choosing to do this the easy way, as her parents did, she chooses the more dangerous, but ultimately, better way.

Not sure how kids will react to this book, but do know kids are always looking for creepy, scary. ( )

Coraline meets Alice in Wonderland is the best way to describe this book. Juniper Berry is the daughter of two famous Hollywood actors who completely ignore her, and she has no idea why until she follows them one night. Its a quick read filled with supernatural worlds and situations. ( )

Review to come soon. Such a devishly and spooky MG book! ( )

From August 2011 SLJ:
Gr 4-6–Juniper Berry misses the days when her parents were less famous. They have become two of the most recognizable actors in the world, and the 11-year-old rattles around their mansion with only her dog for company. Even when her mother and father are home, they are too preoccupied to act out the plays that she writes for them. When Juniper meets a boy wandering around the grounds, he tells her he has noticed a similar withdrawal in his parents and believes the adults’ strange behavior is linked to a mysterious tree on Juniper’s property. As she and Giles explore the tree more thoroughly, they find a hole in its base and a staircase. They discover an underground lair that is the home of Skeksyl, a shadowy creature that trades in special balloons. Those who agree to breathe into one will have their innermost desires fulfilled. As the children are drawn deeper into the eerie world, they realize that their parents have fallen victim to Skeksyl’s temptations and must find a way to reclaim their souls and restore the unity that their families once enjoyed. While Kozlowsky’s imagined world is an original one, readers are never truly drawn in as events unfold, and even the main characters come across as flat and unappealing. Lyn Gardner’s Into the Woods (Random, 2007) and N. D. Wilson’s “100 Cupboards” trilogy (Random) are better choices for fantasy lovers who enjoy themes of the importance of family. Full-page, atmospheric illustrations appear throughout.–Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA ( )