A slow but ultimately successful installment in a serviceable Christian fiction series aimed at middle-grade readers.
This second volume in the Threshold series stands, as did the series debut, with one foot in the clouds—amid an epic battle of angels and demons—and another planted firmly on the Earth, entrenched in the ordinary lives of the Pomeroy family.
In this relatively slow-paced sequel, 14-year-old Prissie Pomeroy learns that an angel has been kidnapped right from her family’s apple orchard. The other angels she knows—some of whom are members of her community in human guise—are trying to locate and rescue him. The angels are also concerned with protecting Prissie; she is important to the mission of the angels in some way and is in serious danger, but the nature of her role is not made clear. Scenes of angels and occasionally demons going about their mysterious, ethereal business are woven into the more commonplace story of a young woman dealing with complicated friendships and family dynamics. While the angels-and-demons subplot is a bit baffling, the more realistic elements of the narrative, such as the scenes that describe Prissie’s struggles with jealousy of the time and attention her father devotes to his bakery assistant, are well-executed and resonant.
A slow but ultimately successful installment in a serviceable Christian fiction series aimed at middle-grade readers. (order of angels, discussion questions) (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: April 23, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-310-72489-6
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Zondervan
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
Evocations of Narnia are not enough to salvage this fantasy, which struggles with thin character development.
A portal fantasy survivor story from an established devotional writer.
Fourteen-year-old Eva’s maternal grandmother lives on a grand estate in England; Eva and her academic parents live in New Haven, Connecticut. When she and Mum finally visit Carrick Hall, Eva is alternately resentful at what she’s missed and overjoyed to connect with sometimes aloof Grandmother. Alongside questions of Eva’s family history, the summer is permeated by a greater mystery surrounding the work of fictional children’s fantasy writer A.H.W. Clifton, who wrote a Narnialike series that Eva adores. As it happens, Grandmother was one of several children who entered and ruled Ternival, the world of Clifton’s books; the others perished in 1952, and Grandmother hasn’t recovered. The Narnia influences are strong—Eva’s grandmother is the Susan figure who’s repudiated both magic and God—and the ensuing trauma has created rifts that echo through her relationships with her daughter and granddaughter. An early narrative implication that Eva will visit Ternival to set things right barely materializes in this series opener; meanwhile, the religious parable overwhelms the magic elements as the story winds on. The serviceable plot is weakened by shallow characterization. Little backstory appears other than that which immediately concerns the plot, and Eva tends to respond emotionally as the story requires—resentful when her seething silence is required, immediately trusting toward characters readers need to trust. Major characters are cued white.
Evocations of Narnia are not enough to salvage this fantasy, which struggles with thin character development. (author’s note, map, author Q&A) (Religious fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Jan. 30, 2024
ISBN: 9780593194454
Page Count: 384
Publisher: WaterBrook
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
A sweet but slight Southern family story.
It's 1956. April Garnet's father abandoned her before her birth 14 years ago; now her mother does the same thing, leaving her with Aunt June in Virginia while she goes to look for work in Florida. Garnet's stated resentment dissolves when her relatives, who'd not previously been aware of her existence, welcome her warmly. She accompanies her aunt to a different church service each Sunday, and gradually it's revealed that her aunt is looking to be cured from terminal cancer. The churches come across as both interchangeable and stereotyped—the speaking in tongues, snake-handling and even faith healing are presented more in the nature of carnival sideshows than as stemming from any actual religious belief. How Garnet feels toward God is never revealed. Except for her growing interest in a young preacher, Silver, her emotional tone remains flaccid, and she changes not a whit from start to finish. White's first-person narration and her comfortable dialogue are so smooth that it's easy to overlook the lack of action, but this is far from her strongest effort. The improbable happily-ever-after ending will appeal to children whose parents are separated. Homey and bland as a bowl of grits without gravy. (Historical fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-39912-2
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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