Leeva at Last

A Matilda comp is usually, for me, a must-read. However, I got busy this year, so even though this was published in March 2023, and was nominated for Capitol Choices, I did not get around to it until November 2023. Whoops! I’m here now, rectifying that. I genuinely enjoyed reading this book, but the Matilda-esque of it all did kind of dim the shimmer, I won’t lie.

Leeva Thornblossom is a precocious, nice child living in the same house as her terrible, terrible parents. Her mother is the town mayor obsessed with fame, and her father is the town treasurer obsessed with money. Leeva doesn’t go to school—doesn’t even know it exists until the book begins–and she’s basically held hostage inside her house—cooking microwave cheese meals for her family, counting her father’s money, and helping him hide it in shoeboxes from her mother’s endless high heels. A notice about school starting in the newspaper prompts Leeva to finally take action though, and she sneaks out through the back hedge and discovers the town library, being run by the librarian’s orphan nephew because the stairs are bad, and Leeva’s parent’s took away the library’s elevator. As Leeva has her Matilda moment, with less magic, she reads voraciously, learns about the terrors of her parents, and meets a cadre of new friends, including a very talent child who is terrified of being on stage, the son of insurance adjusters concerned that everything might kill him, and of course, her adopted pet, a badger named Bob.

Throughout the course of the book, we never see Leeva actually get to school, but we see her learn of the outside world, runaway from home and live in a book drop, and use her new-found knowledge and friends to right the wrongs of her parents, ultimately sending them packing to a shameful reality show. It’s a sort of modern but not too modern Matilda, sans the magic and the Miss Trunchbull. The parents are Trunchbullian enough, with a Dahl-amount of child endangerment, some money laundering, etc. It’s got some really funny moments, and a great voice, which makes it perfect for reading aloud, but I just couldn’t get past how Matilda-esque it felt. That made it hard for me, even as I flew through the story.

I haven’t read any of Sara Pennypacker’s other work, but I’m very familiar with Matthew Cordell’s illustrations and work! My ARC of this didn’t have a ton of illustrations, but I can see how they would be a perfect fit for this story…if not contributing even more to how Matilda-esque it felt!