The Girl from Earth's End

January 1, 2023
A girl with a green thumb uproots herself from her isolated island home in search of a rare plant to cure her dying papa. Twelve years ago, the Orange Boat (which hasn't carried oranges since the Great Soil Blight) brought an unexpected delivery to Earth's End, a forgotten corner of the Gardenia Isles. Neither of Henna's papas expected to receive a baby in the mail. Henna knows all about her family's story, and she thought she knew everything about Papa Niall and Papa Joaquim too until she discovers seasonal allergies aren't what's making Papa Niall sick this year but the resurgence of a terminal illness. Determined to save him, Henna embarks on a secret mission at St. Basil's Conservatory, an elite horticulture boarding school where she hopes to find and steal from a heavily guarded repository the last remaining seeds of the nightwalker, a plant rumored to produce a miracle healing elixir. Humor and a suspenseful adventure balance the sensitive, aching exploration of loss. Sun-bronzed, dark-haired Henna lives in a racially diverse world. Henna; her genderfluid friend, P; and their roommate, Lora, who uses a wheelchair for mobility, face various barriers of accessibility at the school. Each of them has their own goals, but they learn to affirm and ally with one another to challenge injustice. Dairman's careful use of details sets up an emotionally fulfilling, bittersweet resolution. A coming-of-age story blossoming with tender honesty and hope. (author's note) (Fantasy. 8-12)

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from February 6, 2023
Twelve-year-old Henna Quinn-Correira, described as having sun-bronzed skin, has lived at the Gardenia Isles’ remotest island, Earth’s End, since being delivered by boat as an infant. Though her two papas, dark-complexioned Joaquim and pale-skinned Niall, weren’t expecting to receive a baby in response to an ad for art project supplies, she’s been with them ever since—developing an affinity for plant life and studying the Great Soil Blight that wiped out the islands’ citrus industry. When Papa Niall’s seeming allergies turn out to be the recurrence of a serious lung cancer, and Henna learns of the nightwalker plant—a rare, healing epiphyte of the islands’ now-blighted orange trees—the girl leaves home to attend St. Basil’s, the Gardenias’ foremost plant sciences academy. The school may prove the repository of the nightwalker’s remaining uncultivated seeds, which, Henna hopes, might be planted symbiotically with the island’s last remaining orange tree to save Papa Niall’s life. While thoughtfully building out the islands’ natural world and touching on themes of discrimination, sustainability, and corporate ethics, Dairman (Desert Girl, Monsoon Boy) raises the stakes as quiet exposition gives way to a page-turning final half. The cast is intersectionally diverse; an author’s note concludes. Ages 8–12. Agent: Ammi-Joan Paquette, Erin Murphy Literary.

Starred review from February 1, 2023

Gr 3-7-Twelve-year-old Henna has lived her entire life on the tiny island of Earth's End in the Gardenia Isles. Once renowned for its abundance of orange groves, the islands are now mostly barren and sparsely populated. Her island was once the home of the monastery of St. Hortense, horticulturalists who devoted their work to collecting and cataloging the native plant life. Henna came to the island on the Orange Boat, an old vessel that makes the island circuit delivering mail and supplies, as an infant in a box. Old Manol, the ship's captain, delivered the infant to inhabitants of Earth's End, who came to be Henna's papas; fair-skinned, artistic Niall and strong, dark-skinned Joaquim. Growing up with just her papas on the island means she is quite adept at gardening, growing, and harvesting food. Joaquim fishes while Niall paints and makes their home comfortable. Henna's life is content until one of her papas falls critically ill. Henna consults an old island book of plants that could unlock the secret to curing him. But to prepare the cure, she must leave the island and her parents to attend St. Basil's Conservatory School, where a secret seed repository could hold the only means to save Papa Niall. A charming and sweet story that shows what lengths a child will go to to protect the ones she loves. Henna's journey to find a cure for her papa is poignant yet adventurous. The characters she meets along the way are diverse and entertaining, from her genderfluid friend P to the quirky staff at St. Basil's. Yet the heart of the story lies in Henna's devotion to her fathers and finding the strength to allow others to help her when she has only known how to fend for herself. Filled with gardening vocabulary and information, it may inspire readers to pick up a spade and grow something wonderful. Although the location is fictional, Dairman's afterword mentions that her inspiration came from the people of the Azores Islands, off the coast of Portugal. Henna is depicted with dark hair, and light brown skin. VERDICT Very appealing and rich with touching moments alongside innocent adventure. Readers will become friends with Henna and share in her growth while being thoroughly entertained.-Carol Connor

Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2023
Grades 3-6 Isolated Earth's End, with its crumbling monastery walls and carefully tended garden, is the only home 12-year-old Henna knows. When sickness overcomes one of her papas, Henna leaves for a plant-focused secondary school on another of the Gardenia Islands, where she is convinced she'll find the nightwalker, a potentially extinct climbing vine and "botanical miracle-worker" with healing powers that might save her ailing father. As a scholarship student at St. Basil's Conservatory, Henna has an urgent mission, and she meets an additional challenge: other children (the first she's met), including roommates P (raucous and gender fluid) and Lora (rich, aloof, and disabled). The trio bond and collectively break conventions on their quest for nightwalker seeds, which expands each child's understanding of familial love, acceptance, and the power of acknowledging one's own limits. Henna's is an endearing and compassionate tale in a richly rendered, slightly fantastical world with skillfully crafted story lines around conservation, sacrifices, and grief. Readers will root for Henna as she grows new peer relationships while nurturing an enduring love for her fathers.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 1, 2023
Raised by her two papas on a remote island (the setting is loosely based on the Azores), Henna has a gift for plants, so when she learns her papa Niall has incurable cancer, she vows to save him using her plant knowledge. Tales of a nearly extinct specimen with miraculous healing powers, the nightwalker, send her off-island to St. Basil's, the botanical secondary school where a nightwalker seed is rumored to be stored in a secret repository. Henna and another student who calls themself P are both admitted on scholarship, with the requirement that they act in service to fellow new student Lora, the wheelchair-using daughter of the exorbitantly wealthy Windover family. At first standoffish, Lora confides her desire to do more things for herself and later provides help when Henna and P's efforts to find the seed land them in trouble. Issues of disability accessibility, gender identity, and grief and loss figure heavily, yet naturally, in the intertwined storylines. Dairman evokes a Victorian plant-hunter aesthetic while skirting the border of fantasy (the nightwalker is described in magical terms as able to "walk" up the trunk of its host plant, the orange tree), although the affecting ending lands the book squarely in realism. Readers intrigued by the wonders of the natural world will find a kindred spirit in Henna, whose determination and unwavering love for her papas propel this story to its dynamic conclusion. Anita L. Burkam

(Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2023
Raised by her two papas on a remote island (the setting is loosely based on the Azores), Henna has a gift for plants, so when she learns her papa Niall has incurable cancer, she vows to save him using her plant knowledge. Tales of a nearly extinct specimen with miraculous healing powers, the nightwalker, send her off-island to St. Basil's, the botanical secondary school where a nightwalker seed is rumored to be stored in a secret repository. Henna and another student who calls themself P are both admitted on scholarship, with the requirement that they act in service to fellow new student Lora, the wheelchair-using daughter of the exorbitantly wealthy Windover family. At first standoffish, Lora confides her desire to do more things for herself and later provides help when Henna and P's efforts to find the seed land them in trouble. Issues of disability accessibility, gender identity, and grief and loss figure heavily, yet naturally, in the intertwined storylines. Dairman evokes a Victorian plant-hunter aesthetic while skirting the border of fantasy (the nightwalker is described in magical terms as able to "walk" up the trunk of its host plant, the orange tree), although the affecting ending lands the book squarely in realism. Readers intrigued by the wonders of the natural world will find a kindred spirit in Henna, whose determination and unwavering love for her papas propel this story to its dynamic conclusion.

(Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)