Review of “Cora's Garden Rescue” by Sally Kashner

Score: 96/100 (9.6 out of 10)

The saying goes that lightning doesn't strike twice; well, somehow, someway, Sally Kashner (author) and Remesh Ram (illustrator) have done it again!

Cora's Garden Rescue is yet another phenomenal, top-notch, high-scoring children's book by Sally Kashner! It is vibrantly and brilliantly illustrated by Remesh Ram.

It follows in the footsteps of Cora's Christmas Challenge, only the third children's book to ever receive a 9.6 score from us. It is the direct sequel and second book in the Cora Can Collection series, which is shaping up to be an elite children's book series.

Cora's Garden Rescue rejoins Cora—a cute, caring, and compelling character based on the author's granddaughter, Kaylee. Fun trivia: Cora and Kaylee both have freckles, green eyes, and the rare (less than 2%) and brilliant trait of bright, vibrant curly-red hair!

But Cora's unique and bold appearance isn't the only thing about her that stands out. Like Kaylee, Cora is creative, courageous, and adventurous! She loves to try new things and take up challenging, new tasks. In the previous book, Cora took up her mother's “Christmas challenge” and turned that into a mission to build a shelter for a family of rabbits to take refuge from the cold.

In Cora's Garden Rescue, Cora's mission/task is arguably even more bold, complex, and involved. In the story of this book, Cora realizes that her beloved Grandma is a feeling a bit down about the condition of the community garden, which has fallen into disrepair. Most of all, it has deteriorated due to a lack of love and care from its community members, of which Grandma has been a long-time contributor. Perhaps in older age, her ability to tend to the garden has diminished along with the garden itself. In fact, the book does a very subtle yet powerful comparison-contrast between the health and well-being of the garden and Grandma's health and mood.

When the garden is down, Grandma is down.
When the garden is up, Grandma is up.

This goes along with tricks like lighting and colors (that we'll delve deeper into later).

But most importantly, Cora has the sensitivity and empathy to understand how her Grandma feels and why she feels that way. She knows that something (the sad state of the garden) is making Grandma sad, and—like the terrific character and person she is—she determines to do something about it!

Using her powerful combination of compassion, charisma, creativity, and leadership, Cora is able to rally her friends (Zoe, Jace, and Finn) to help fix and care for the community garden.

Now, a few things need to be mentioned before we get into the second half of this book. The illustrations by Remesh Ram, while still colorful and appealing, do a phenomenal job of setting the dimmer, more somber tone of the first half of this book (which helps the book to establish stakes and emotional depth—which was very effective)!. It's not quite dystopian or post-apocalyptic, but it really gave us that vibe!

In the beginning of the book, the expression on Grandma's face is sad and contemplative. Her lips and eyebrows droop. The expression on Cora's face is concerned and worried, as is the face of the family's tabby cat. If you look closely, though the tabby cat's face looks almost identical on two separate pages (suggesting a copy & paste job), it actually isn't. The eyes are actually different, indicating that the cat is actually looking at someone/something in a different location from the previous page. In fact, he/she may be thinking. This is very subtle but very cool to notice!

Also, his right paw is in different positions. In the first, it reaches up but apprehensively toward Grandma, as if the cat doesn't know quite how to help and comfort her. In the next, the cat's paw is down, indicating more decisiveness (as the characters realize why Grandma is sad). Now, we would prefer if the cat's pupils were bigger (and, thus, cuter), but that's a minor complaint.

Anyway, the narrative and illustrations do a great job at establishing how poor the garden's condition is. Talk about dystopian/post-apocalyptic! There is trash and bottles littered everywhere. The roses are dying. The vines are wilted. There are patches of brown dirt where flowers, bushes, or other plants should be. A tree branch is fallen and absent of leaves. Flower pots are on their sides. Planks of wood lay scattered on their sides.

Saddest and most impactful of all, there's a butterfly named Buttercup in the garden who is in a miserable and pitiful state. Its wings are tattered and torn. It has little to no color, especially compared to the brightness of the tabby cat's fur or Cora's red hair. Buttercup asks for help, giving a great sorrowful and exasperated expression (like a Disney or Pixar character). It's hard not to feel for Buttercup!

This book does such a great job at getting readers on board with the objective!

As mentioned before, Cora rallies her friends to help—presumably the same friends she met/made in Cora's Christmas Challenge (though those characters were cloaked in heavy winter gear, it was a little hard to tell if they're the same people).

Now, Cora's friends—for the most part—look great. Zoe (who is a person of color) really stands out with how detailed she is. Every curl and braid of her hair was drawn and colored with care. She's almost as detailed as Cora herself. Zoe also seems to be the leader, at least of the other three friends, leading the charge in cleaning the garbage before the others.

There's also Finn, the blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy, who especially loves animals and wants them to have a safe, healthy environment to live in. We think we caught onto that aspect of his character in the previous book.

However, there is one character in this section of the book whom we thought could've been illustrated in a little more appealing light. Let's just get it off our chest: Jace looks strange in all but his portrait. We think he is supposed to be Asian (like some of us judges are) with his dark hair and more narrow eyes. However, he looks almost androgynous or even feminine a lot of his times. We think we know why: it's his eyebrows, eyes, and lips.

No, it's not because his eyes are more narrow, it's because (for some strange reason) the area around his eyes appear to have been glammed up with make-up. The area above and around his eyes look like they have some pink and gold around them. We considered if he might be transgender or something, but then we realized he's clearly referred to by the pronoun “he.”

Another thing is that his lips are very wide and very red, almost as if wearing lipstick. We're not sure if this was intentional or incidental. There's a planting scene around page 22 in which the width and size of Jace's lips/smile is greater than the width between his eyes and eyebrows! It's actually a little unsettling—almost Joker-like.

His eyebrows are also much more narrow and thinner than some of the other characters, almost as if plucked or drawn-on. If he's supposed to be male, maybe his eyebrows should be thicker? Cora's are naturally thick but still appealing.

Anyway, it's not the biggest deal. It's one character. Also, Jace does do some great things in the book, like showing his friends how to collect rainwater. Also, if you look really closely at that scene, Zoe has a really interesting expression on her face—almost one of resentment or even jealousy (though this is unlikely given the positive tone and message of the book). It's fun to have some head canon though! Maybe Zoe doesn't like people stealing her thunder and showing her up? She's human like the rest of us!

Ok, well, it's far more likely that she's just inquisitive. Her right hand is gesturing as if to ask, “What are you doing?”

It's really subtle though.

By the way, the page on which this scene takes place also demonstrates one of the author's and the illustrator's coolest tricks (as seen in the previous book): using the environment to present text. On this page, the shingles on the roof form lines that serve as lines for the text! We really appreciate things like that.

Speaking of expressions, it's so cool and cute to see the tabby cat's facial expressions change throughout the book as the situation improves. He started off the book looking sad, worried, and apprehensive. He progressively becomes happier and more cheerful, which is a welcomed sight!

The tabby cat also helps in the process, taking notes, making lists, and even collecting leaves.

Everyone in this book makes an impact and plays their part! It's about community, teamwork, and working together—which we loved!

Some other familiar faces return in this book including the adorable squirrel and the rabbit family, still tending to their shelter! How cute!

We also see more bees, birds, and butterflies join the ecosystem of the garden.

The book becomes progressively brighter, more colorful, and more vibrant as the characters like Grandma and the tabby cat become happier and more fulfilled/satisfied.

One of the last scenes in the book is of the book is of Cora closing the gates to the garden as the sun sets. The bright, warm golden hew illuminates the whole scene. It's beautiful! And a very nice touch by the illustrator (and concept by the author)!

The book also has a bonus, epilogue-like section which basically talks about different cat behaviors. It's amusing and entertaining, but we didn't put too much stock into it. It's superfluous to the core book/story. There's also a neat certificate at the end that young readers can sign at the conclusion! What a nice way to encourage children to read!

Check it out on Amazon!