A review by arielzeit
The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer L. Holm

2.0

Eh. I was so disappointed by this fantasy. I usually LOVE. Jennifer Holm, whether it's graphic novels (Babymouse) or historical novels ( I was pulling for Turtle in Paradise to get the Newbery). But this fantasy just didn't send me. The heroine's grandpa is a mad scientist who discovers the fountain of youth in a jellyfish and tests it out, turning himself 13 in the process. Thus he has to come live with the heroine and her kooky drama teacher mother. So we have a kind of Freak Friday situation here (except that she doesn't turn old$, and we get the predictable laughs at the newly young grandfather walking around in old man's clothes. But somehow this doesn't turn the heroine into a pariah, that she is hanging out with her supposed cousin who dresses like a grandfather. The mother also seemed derivative to me; in this case she was like Mia Thermopolis's Bohemian mother in Princess Diaries. Again it was played for laughs, with Arty Mom wearing fuschia minis and tall boots to school, much to cranky young grandpa's loudly expressed disapproval. But the worst was that in the end Grandpa is willing to give up his fabulous youth serum made of jellyfish because of some classic poetry about beginnings needing endings. Even in a 13-year-old body, this guy was not going to come around to that point of view. The thing people sometimes forget about fantasy is that it has to be even MORE scrupulously realistic in the parts where it can be. The fantasy must be lightly attached at all 4 corners. Otherwise it doesn't work. Jennifer Holmes is a brilliant historical novelist and graphic novelist. Maybe she should,stick,to,those.