Red Sun Girl

by Jean Marzollo, Claudio Marzollo, Susan Meddaugh (Illustrator)

In a world of two suns, Kiri is the only human being who does not change into an animal each day after the blue sun rises, but a magic ruby and the Animal Singer help her out of her predicament.

Genres: Childrens

56 pages, Paperback

First published March 28, 1983

About the author

Jean Marzollo was an American children's author and illustrator best known for the I Spy series, a best-selling and award-winning collection written entirely in rhythm and rhyme and illustrated by Walter Wick. Over her career, she wrote more than 100 books for children, parents, and educators, including Help Me Learn Numbers 0-20, The Little Plant Doctor, and Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King. Born and raised in Connecticut, she graduated from the University of Connecticut and earned a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She taught high school English and later worked in educational publishing, serving for 20 years as editor of Scholastic’s Let’s Find Out Magazine. Later in life, she began illustrating her own books.

Reviews

[Barbara Gordon · Rating 1 out of 5]

WARNING! SPOILERS!
Children may well enjoy this book, with its shape-changing families, magical seasons and benevolent witches. But it's worth considering what they're taking in along with the adventure.

The book struck me as questionable in several ways. Kiri's family and village are unaccepting of her difference, and she must learn to be the same as them, at considerable risk, before they welcome her back. The Animal Singer gives her a ruby that keeps her from dying of thirst, and she trades it to another magical person for the ability to transform. The ruby comes back to her magically, so she never pays for her new ability, nor is it a gift, because the other magical person wanted the ruby and did not return it willingly. This cheating is acceptable in the morality of the story, because the second magical person is marked BAD GUY, while the Animal Singer (who sets up the scam) is marked GOOD GUY. Nice to know that people are to be judged on their demeanour, not on their actions.
When Kiri returns home, no one in her family seems particularly distressed about her having vanished, or the possibility that she might have died of thirst in the desert. That she can conform is the only important thing.
I don't demand a moral in children's books, but the morality in this one seemed to be negative!

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books as a child. Kiri lives in a world when the Red Sun is shining everyone's human and when the Blue Sun is shining everyone's an animal- everyone but Kiri. She never changes, and that makes her sad because she can't go outside at that time since everyone makes fun of her. Kiri decides to run away. She comes across an old lady who tells her to go see the Animal Singer and that if anyone he could turn her into an animal during the Blue Sun. She sees him and turns her into a blue bird. She goes home to surprise her family and they can all play outside together now when the Blue Sun is up.

This book has elements of paranormal in it, which may not be for everyone. However, maybe this is the book that made me (later in life) want to read about vampires and shapeshifters!

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was one of my favorite books when I was younger, but I'm reading it now and it really disturbs me. It seems as though the lessons we are meant to take away are that it is greedy to accept payment for a service and it's not ok to be different. I do still love the illustrations.

[Sandee · Rating 5 out of 5]

My kids and I read this last night and we liked the idea of two suns and the shape shifting. What a creative story and of magic and a little girl's persistence and help from an unexpected person who had no investment in the little girl but helped her anyway.

We like to read books just for the sake of being taken away into another land.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

My niece enjoyed this fantasy/sci-fi early reader. Aside from your average princess stories, this is the first fantasy that she's read, and I'm glad she enjoyed it. I'm trying to introduce her to chapter books and to various genres, so this was a good book to use toward that aim.

[Amaňda Piskel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this when I was very little in a library I went to often. It was a book whose memory has stuck with me through the years, though I'd forgot many of the details. Reading it again today I realize now why it left such an impression on me. Red Sun Girl is about a girl who lives in a society where she's not normal in a way that bothers her greatly. Her family recognizes she's very obviously different, but doesn't have the knowledge or tools to help her. The girl's desire to be a normal person is so great that she's willing to throw everything away, willing to risk death by starvation, willing to brave great danger from someone she's warned about that might be able to help her, but that wants her to pay a heavy price and does not have her best interests at heart.

She takes the chance though, because life for her not as the person she knows she should be is intolerable to her at this point. And with support from someone willing to help her who asks nothing in return, she's able to achieve an existence she can be happy with. It's scary, at first, she doesn't know if things have worked the way she desires. And when she returns to her family she does so in secret because she doesn't know how they will react. But they confess they miss her and cared for her and when she finally reveals herself to them, they're overjoyed to have her back. Her fears valid, but ultimately unfounded.

Overall I think it's a beautiful story that's easy for children to read and understand that highlights good messages about the dangers of selfish and greedy people who hoard the power to help people and how a family that accepts who you are, no matter if you're different or if you come back to them changed, is a good and loving family.

[Lissy Fabe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t understand some of the lower ratings. When I read this book to squirmy first or second graders, the room goes as quiet as a tomb with the kind of passionate attention that for a teacher is money in the bank.