Publishers Weekly
01/27/2025
After Jem, his younger sister Verity, and their mother move from a city flat to a hillside cottage, peculiar things begin occurring and strange noises are heard. Jem bottles up his emotions, but he misses the city, is more suited to drawing than to schoolwork, and becomes irritated as Verity chatters on about a nouka—a mysterious local being that she says is the source of the mischievous tricks plaguing the pale-skinned family’s new home. In this comfortable-feeling tale by previous collaborators O’Farrell and Terrazzini (When the Stammer Came to Stay), romantic, lushly washed spreads reveal that the nouka is real, adorably chinchilla-esque with black fur and shining eyes. Jem and the nouka draw ever closer to an encounter as the creature longs to free Jem from his stifled emotions, and the child’s search immerses him in an intoxicating new world (“Bracken and soil and twigs were filling his hair, his clothes, his nails”). Remniscent of The Giggler Treatment and Five Children and It, this read supplies magic, mischief, and rural charm—as well as a happy ending. Song lyrics and music conclude. Ages 6–9. (Apr.)
From the Publisher
A lovely read-aloud for children ages 5-9.
—The Wall Street Journal
A wise and gentle tale about the necessity of mischief to distract us from ourselves.
—Kirkus Reviews
In the gentle fantasy story The Boy Who Lost His Spark, a boy made separate by his own self-awareness comes to joy with a little help from an otherworldly friend.
—Foreword Reviews
O'Farrell conjures the magic of a timeless fable in lyrical prose well suited to reading aloud to a single listener. Terrazzini’s careful semi-realistic watercolor scenes, embellished with magical symbols, deepen the enchantment. The Gaelic legend, presented in poetry as well as musical notation, closes this gentle tale when mischief sparks a transformation from uncertainty to understanding.
—Booklist
Kirkus Reviews
2024-12-14
Be careful what you claim to disbelieve. It may be listening.
Jem has been overflowing with anger ever since his mother moved him and his little sister, Verity, from the city to the country, far from their old life and friends. As his unhappiness mounts, strange things begin happening: Jem discovers his shoes filled with chestnuts; the family’s clothing is shredded. Verity blames a “nouka,” a mysterious being said to live in the nearby hill. Jem’s frustrations build until one day he declares, “I don’t believe in the nouka!” These words trigger the local nouka, a furry black creature who does indeed exist and who likes warm fires and pranks—and who turns its attention to the boy, ramping up the misdeeds. For Jem, accepting his new home means also accepting the existence of the nouka, twin problems for a boy determined to be sad and serious. In this lengthy picture book, delicate watercolors illuminate the quiet beauty of the countryside, imbuing both Jem’s slowly dawning wonder and the nouka’s tiny world with magic and poignance. Acclaimed adult novelist O’Farrell’s language is marked by elegant turns of phrase, as when Jem is described as feeling “so low and listless, sitting there, as if his insides had been stuffed with damp rags.” The characters present white. This U.K. import closes with music and lyrics to “The Song of the Nouka,” based on the Irish jig “Seanduine Dóite.”
A wise and gentle tale about the necessity of mischief to distract us from ourselves.(Picture book. 5-9)
