Zelda and Ivy: The Runaways: Candlewick Sparks
Starred Review.PreSchool-Grade 3–Another appealing offering featuring the spirited fox sisters. In the first chapter, Zelda and Ivy run away from home when cucumber sandwiches appear on the lunch menu. They take a blanket and their favorite toys to their backyard, where they can keep an eye on their parents, who don't seem to miss them at all. When they finally go back inside, they discover that their father has saved them the very sandwiches that they were trying to avoid. In the second episode, the siblings are making a time capsule to be opened in one hundred years. Zelda drops in her lucky jewel, while Ivy adds her cherished doll. It doesn't take long, however, for the sisters to realize that they can't part with their favorite possessions. The third chapter finds Ivy making a secret potion and Zelda struggling to write a haiku. Then their friend Eugene comes up with a clever way to use Ivy's concoction to ease Zelda's writing pains. Bright, expressive cartoon illustrations complement the fine writing in this beginning reader.–Laura Scott, Farmington Community Library, MICopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.