Lost Evangeline
by Kate DiCamillo; illus. by Sophie Blackall
Intermediate    Candlewick    160 pp.
9/25    9781536225525    $17.99
e-book ed.  9781536247596    $17.99

In this, the latest of DiCamillo’s Norendy stories (The Puppets of Spelhorst, rev. 9/23; The Hotel Balzaar, rev. 9/24), we meet a cast of characters who come trailing their folktale origins. Evangeline, in the Thumbelina tradition, is a miniature child (the size of a mouse) who appears one day in the home of a childless shoemaker and his wife. The nurturing shoemaker takes wonderful care of the girl, but his avaricious wife sells her to a wealthy widow for a bag of gold. Evangeline escapes the buyer but is shortly thereafter captured by a villainous “traveling curiosity show” entrepreneur. Cue another couple of folklore regulars: a kindly tailor and an animal companion. Evangeline’s strengths are her sweet singing voice and her Scheherazade-like ability to distract her antagonists with storytelling. The bittersweet denouement, in which the virtuous characters find happiness, if in unforeseen ways, is followed by a satisfying “where are they now?” summary of each player’s fate. Blackall’s illustrations add specificity to the settings (flickering firelight, a bird’s-eye view of the harbor) and to the archetypal characters (the rich old lady’s ear trumpet, the curiosity show owner’s nose hairs), and her use of a distinctive looping calligraphic line ties the whole thing together.

From the November/December 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.