 |
Reviewed by: Lisa Rice, Middle School Librarian Title: Greenwild: The World Behind the Door
Author: Pari Thomson Illustrator: Elisa Paganelli Series: 1st book in the Greenwild series; book 2, Greenwild: The City Beyond the Sea, comes out in June 2024
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
Year: 2023 Good for Grades: 4-7 Genre/Type of Book: J fantasy, magic, nature, conservation
Content Warnings, or things that other School Librarians should be aware of: minor violence
Recommended for a school library: Yes Reason(s) for choosing the book: When I saw that the second book in the series was already written, I figured the first book had to be a good read. When I picked it up, I noticed the beautiful colored end pages that showed a map of the setting of the story, Mallowmarsh, and it looked like a fun place to visit, with lots of interesting places. Plus, there is a cat on the cover, so I felt it was "required reading!" If you were tasked by the publisher with writing a short quote for the back cover of this book, what would it be:
"Planting a seed is an act of hope. It means you have faith in the future." - Marigold Brightly (p. 147)
|
Review:
Although I did not love this book like I thought I would, I think some middle schoolers might, particularly girls, and middle schoolers who are plant and animal lovers. This book would be a fun read for mostly 4-6th graders. While I love all the ideas in this book- a strong female main characters (11-year-old Daisy) who follows her adventurous mother (a journalist who travels the world chasing stories), several mysteries, lots of action, descriptive writing, plant jokes ("Which plant is always cold? A chili!" p. 222), giant slugs with piranha teeth, "unlawful immigrants," illustrations throughout the book, climate change, conservation messages- it was almost too much, and too many things. I felt like it needed some editing and paring down. Look at the reviews and you will see that I am in the minority on this.
The descriptive writing is wonderful, and I can see using certain paragraphs to teach descriptive writing and model what good writing looks/sounds like. The author uses lots of adjectives, similes, and metaphors. For example, in the prologue, "The sandstorm arrived like a leopard on the hunt- fast and very wild." Sometimes though it just seemed too much. I wanted to say just tell me what happened and get on with it already! The black and white illustrations included throughout the book are well done and are the perfect amount to add to the story.
Mallowmarsh (the whole time I kept calling it Marshmallow) is a very creative world. Daisy's mom disappears in the Amazon while on a dangerous mission and it is up to Daisy to find her mom, hopefully still alive. Before her mom left, she gave daisy a dandelion paperweight. When her mom goes missing, the paperweight begins to glow and work like a compass. Following it, Daisy arrives in Mallowmarsh, the finest garden in all of Greenwild, during their Twelfth Night of Yuletide. Daisy learns that her mom is a Botanist, which is a plant magician, and so is she. Green magic helps things take root and grow and they also harvest seeds, roots, and leaves to make potions and salves. It's more "what can we do for nature" and less "what can nature do for us?" Daisy is accused of being an "unlawful immigrant," which makes her feel "as small as a gnat." This could be a good discussion topic. From here, there are a lot of interesting/quirky characters and plants and plots. Again, a few less of any of these would be good, and again, I think I am in the minority.
There are many interesting plants mentioned and it was fun to see which ones were real and which were not. For example, the suicide palm is mentioned- it only flowers once and then dies at 50 years old (p.12), and it is a real plant. The milk-chocolate plant, where the more milk you add, the lighter chocolate it produces, sadly, is not real. After reading this book with a class, I can see where planting a garden together would be a lot of fun, or at least a plant study together.
The book seemed to be a mix of the magic of Harry Potter, with the crazy adventures of Alice in Wonderland with the spooky gardening of The Midnight Gardener with a little bit of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. By the end, I was getting bored- another secret garden! More parakeets (there are a lot of parakeets!)! Another crazy plant! Overall, I think it is a good fit for the younger middle school crowd, and I think it will be well-received by that group. I would like to see an ELA teacher reading this book to a class that is studying plants or a unit on ecology.
Number of party hats:
Find resources for The World Behind the Door at Teachingbooks.net
For more information about this book, see the Publisher's Website
Access the book in the Monroe 2 BOCES Sora Collection: