Beanie the Bansheenie

“Everybody in Ireland knows that banshees are supernatural harbingers of doom,” tasked with informing a human about when they will die, begins this moving title. But following a mishap at the moment of meeting, Beanie—a sharp-nosed, green-skinned young “bansheenie” with long black hair—is unable to bond properly with human Rose, portrayed with brown skin. This means that Beanie doesn’t know, as her kind should, when Rose will die. Beanie tries to learn as much as she can about the child (“Rose’s hair tied itself up in terrible tangles if it wasn’t brushed”) and soon grows to love her. The story’s eerie themes are, in the hands of Colfer (the Artemis Fowl series), filled with fizzy glee: Beanie’s howl was not ghastly, but “so cute and musical that blackbirds... gathered in the garden to listen.” Far from awaiting Rose’s death, Beanie realizes that she actively wants Rose to live, and works to save the day when disaster threatens, in this engrossing telling that plays with the idea of love bending immutable truths. Digital artwork by McCarthy (The Wilderness), which takes angular, swirling forms, conjures a sense of otherworldly enchantment. Characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 5–9. (Nov.)