Publishers Weekly - January 18, 2016

Nonfiction

Beneath His Wings

Jenny Pruitt with Anne Severance. Believers,

$13.95 trade paper (244p) ISBN 978-0-578-

16564-6

Pruitt, a natural saleswoman from a
young age, found success in business but
lost her spiritual way as she climbed to the
top of the Atlanta real estate market. In
this memoir of determination and
redemption, Pruitt tells her story of perse-
verance over the emotional difficulties of a
broken childhood that threatened to
stymie and paralyze her from becoming
the successful woman she believes God
intended her to be. Readers will discover
how Pruitt’s faith sustained her in the
darkest moments of suffering, giving her
the strength to make it through marital
troubles and career changes. The text is
punctuated by her original paintings of
various angels with accompanying quotes
from scripture.

This memoir is a
well-rounded
resource for those
who are looking
for a success story
about rising from
difficult circum-
stances. The heart-
felt anecdotes and
advice are valu-
able, but much of Pruitt’s writing simply
highlights moments in her busy life, and
the transitions from chapter to chapter
can be clunky.

Children’s & YA

Peas Let Her Be a Princess

Diane E. Keyes, illus. by Hannah Mericle.

Puddle, $19.95 hardcover (34p) ISBN 978-0-

9962098-0-9

In a witty twist on “The Princess and
the Pea,” first-time author Keyes intro-
duces a foppish prince who plans to use
“Ye Olde Princess Test” to determine
whether the object of his affection is prin-
cess material. The test, naturally, involves
placing a pea beneath her mattress: “if she
wakes from lumpy bedding,/ it’s time to
plan a royal wedding!” After a mouse
steals the pea, and the prince’s knight
companion pulls his sword, the rodent
nervously suggests that the prince needs
to use larger
objects.
Working in
shades of olive
and amber, new-
comer Mericle
makes the most
of the physical
comedy that fol-
lows as the
prince places a hunk of cheese, a melon, a
multi-tiered cake, and several animals
under the mattress. The aggrieved prin-
cess finally wakes up, scoffs at the prince’s
proposal, and leaves in search of comfier
sleeping arrangements. Keyes’s rhymes
carry the story swiftly forward while
upending sexist fairy tale conventions—
readers will finish the book knowing that
lurking around people’s beds isn’t a great
idea and suspecting that this prince won’t
be tying the knot anytime soon. Ages
3–8.

Jon-Lorond Saves the Day

Hanna Rasco, illus. by Luke Flowers. Brave Books, $9.99 paper (28p) ISBN 978-0-692-

35223-6

Jon-Lorond is “not your ordinary little boy”—in his mind, he’s a pirate-fighting superhero, as evidenced by his red cape, headband, and boots. But Jon-Lorond’s attempts to take down a crew of rowdy pirates, led by a snarling captain Red Beard, result in one mishap after another.

Flowers’s (No Way... Way! Are You My
Dinner) dynamic digital cartoons intro-
duce the
lurking,
marauding
pirates into
everyday set-
tings, though
the action
sequences aren’t
always easy to
track—Jon
accidentally hurts his sister at the library,
though it’s not entirely clear how, and
Flowers avoids showing the extent of the
havoc the boy wreaks at the grocery store.

Jon-Lorond’s antics land him in hot water
with his mother, but he redeems himself
when a “hideous, ferocious
spider” scares his sister at
home, and he wrestles it to
the ground before escorting it outside.
Though newcomer Rasco has a tendency
to overwrite in places (“Jon beamed with
pride. Another day saved. Another day of
evil held at bay”), both she and Flowers
provide an entertaining window into the
enormous imagination of their over-
zealous hero. Ages 4–8.

Ascendant

Rebecca Taylor. Ophelia House, $3.99 e-book (452p) ASIN B00VFDC0QS

After her alcoholic father is assigned to
rehab, 16-year-old Charlotte Stevens goes
to live with her enigmatic uncle in
England, where she reconnects with
people she hasn’t seen in almost a decade.
There, while staying in her mother’s old
room, she discovers a strange stone box
and her mother’s
old journals,
drawing her into a
mystery involving
a family she’s
barely known,
which may answer
the question of
why her mother
vanished years
ago. As Charlotte
attempts to get to the heart of the
matter—which involves a conspiracy
stretching back centuries, connected to
dark magic and a ruthless group of pow-
erful individuals—she navigates a per-
ilous love triangle, a Gothic mystery, and
various revelations. Taylor’s (The Exquisite
and Immaculate Grace of Carmen Espinoza)
premise is solid, setting up all of the
ingredients for her Ascendant trilogy (the
second book, Midheaven, is also available).
Progress is slow, however, as the story
meanders, and while multiple layers of
misdirection keep the plot from getting
stale, the stakes are underwhelming and
nebulous. Ages 12–up.