The Night Rainbow

February 1, 2013
Technically accomplished debut chronicles a difficult summer in the south of France from the point of view of a lonely 5-year-old. Her English-born mother named her Peony, her French father called her Pivoine, but her nickname--Pea--seems most appropriate for this little girl tightly enclosed in a pod of her own anxieties and imaginings. She has few reasons for cheer, we learn in the opening pages of her artless narration. Last summer, "Maman came back from the hospital...changed from fat to thin, but she didn't bring back the baby like she promised." This past spring, shortly after Maman got pregnant again, Papa died in a freak accident; "he was driving his tractor on a hill and he fell off it and was squashed." Reeling from her losses, feeling isolated and unwelcome in this small French community--Papa's mother, Mami Lafont, openly wishes she would just go away--Maman now hardly ever leaves the house, or even her bedroom. Pea and her 4-year-old sister Margot are left to roam the countryside, attracting the attention of a kindly neighbor named Claude who has losses of his own to mourn. King accurately captures the speech rhythms and partial understandings of a small child as she unfolds the array of disasters large and small that befall Pea in the months before her brother Pablo is born; her descriptions of the French landscape and animals are exact and lovely. But as grown-up issues begin to loom large in the narrative, and as readers slowly sense that something is not quite right about Margot, the author's decision to restrict us to Pea's point of view comes to seem like a mistake. Revelations of adult complexities are couched in frustratingly simplistic language, and the resolution of Maman's conflict with Mami Lafont, viewed through Pea's eyes, lacks emotional depth. Hampered by a limited perspective, though well-written and sometimes quite moving.

COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

February 1, 2013

Five-year-old Pea (shortened from her French name, Pivoine) and her eerily precocious younger sister, Margot, are left to their own devices for most of one oppressively hot summer in the French countryside after their father is killed in a farm accident and their pregnant and deeply depressed mother takes to her bed. When their attempts at helpfulness around the house fail to lift Maman's spirits, the girls escape to the cooler fields nearby, where they invent games and are soon befriended by their neighbor, Claude, and his affectionate dog, Merlin. There is an air of sadness hanging over Claude, as well, but his kind concern and his provisioning of a tree fort filled with games and snacks is gratefully received by the lonely and ever-hungry Pea. VERDICT With a narrative voice reminiscent of young Jack from Emma Donoghue's Room, observing everything but lacking the wisdom to truly understand the grown-up world, this surprising and enchanting first novel is enthusiastically recommended.--Barbara Love, Kingston Frontenac P.L., Ont.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2012
Five-and-a-half-year-old PeonyPea for shorthas become awfully good at entertaining herself. Practicing cartwheels in the meadow behind her house, picking blackberries from the bramble bushes, feeding the chickens in the coop . . . anything to stay out of her very pregnant mother's way. After Pea's father passed away from a sudden heart attack, Pea's mother seems to have given up on all but the basic upkeep of the house, herself, and Pea. When Pea meets a stranger and his dog in the meadow, she discovers a series of secrets in his dusty house that affects her entire world. King's debut is a poetic, engaging story with a slow-burning plot set in the idyllic French countryside. King's authorial voice shines through Pea, as her skillful narration is childishly authentic without being cloying or cutesy. Reminiscent of Myla Goldberg's Bee Season (2000) and Emma Donoghue's Room (2010) but decidedly lighter, The Night Rainbow is an ode to childhood resilience with a blink-and-you'll-miss-it twist ending. Gorgeously written and deeply heartfelt, King's novel captures one family's reaction to and tentative return from seemingly insurmountable tragedy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)