Kiwiria

Polly has lived on her parents' rhubarb farm her entire life. She knows it's magic even if nobody else will admit it - how else can they have a lake that will let nobody drown, how else can it be that it rains at exactly 1pm every Monday, and how else can it be that she can speak to plants and insects?But one day aunt Edith reveals that she no longer wants to work on the farm, and that she has found a buyer if only Polly's father will agree to sell his half of the farm as well. Initially he refuses, but when it suddenly stops raining and Polly's brother gets dangerously ill, he needs to make a decision - and quickly. Now it's up to Polly to discover the secret of the farm before it's too late.I'm hard pressed to say what I think of this book. I was very well entertained while reading it, but afterwards it occurred to me both that a lot of questions were left unanswered and that Van Cleve occasionally seemed to rely a bit too heavily on magic to save the day, where a logical solution would have worked just as well. And - strangely enough - occasionally vice versa as well.That said, I did enjoy it, and it'll probably do well once it's published, although I do think it's targeted to a somewhat younger audience than myself.