The green kingdom

Caspia, a small-town Maine 12-year-old, finds herself plopped down in Brooklyn after her dad takes a temporary summer assignment there. Grumpy and dreading a place she knows nothing about, her low expectations are turned upside down when a serendipitous discovery leads to local adventure and friendship. While going through a chest of drawers, Caspia discovers a packet of letters: correspondence written in the 1950s between two sisters, filled with botanical riddles spanning the globe. Her inner sleuth awakens, prompting her to seek out neighbors and local resources. Friendships blossom, self-confidence grows, and Caspia realizes that she can bloom wherever she is planted. Hartung's botanical expertise matches Funke's narrative prowess, resulting in epistolary language that is natural and playful, as are the lush illustrations invitingly placed throughout. As readers follow the clues, they'll delight in the answers as the overarching mystery comes to a satisfying conclusion. A solid purchase and easy recommendation for those who enjoy place-based mysteries with a twist, such as Blue Balliett's Chasing Vermeer (2004).

Old riddles provide a modern girl with a summer adventure. Caspia Turkel would rather stay in her small Maine town than spend 11 weeks (the whole summer!) in Brooklyn, even though her parents are excited about the opportunities awaiting them. Within a hand-painted dresser in their rented apartment, Caspia finds a stack of pale-green linen envelopes, tied with a velvet ribbon. The letters inside were sent in the 1950s and '60s to a girl named Minna from her loving sister, Rosalind, and they contain a series of riddles about plants. Even though she's never given much thought to growing things before, Caspia dives into this scavenger hunt and learns unexpected things about what Rosalind dubbed the "Green Kingdom." She also meets amazing people on her journeys around her urban neighborhood, which includes the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The broad range of featured plants includes many that are likely to be familiar to readers. Co-authors Hartung, who has botanical expertise, and Funke, whose original German text was translated by Anna Schmitt Funke, add magic to the mundane, collaborating to create a realistic story that nevertheless feels wonderfully fantastical. Castrillón's delicate illustrations have an old-fashioned feel and provide marvelous atmosphere as well as effectively highlighting the various plant species. Caspia, who's white, makes a diverse group of friends in Brooklyn, but many of their portrayals feel exoticizing and othering, marring the attempt to celebrate diversity.(This review was updated to reflect further communication from the publisher.)A verdant, enchanting read let down by poorly executed diverse representation.(Fiction. 8-12) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.