The combination of adventure, appealing characters, and high stakes should satisfy middle-grade fantasy fans.
Two unlikely preteens battle the gods of Norse mythology to save their world from Ragnarok—chaos and destruction.
Strange things are happening in Crowmarsh, England, and Buzz Buzzard has lots to contend with: his botanist mother in missing in the Amazon cloud forest; his famous mythology-professor father is as remote as ever; he’s bullied by his sister’s boyfriend; and it is Friday the 13th, a date he dreads. Buzz meets Mary, a visiting American girl who can see ghosts and read people’s fears. In the Tangley Woods they discover the missing local meteorologist, only to find that she has become a host for the goddess Sunna, one of the day guardians. Loki has escaped his bonds and captured Sunna, causing Sunday to cease to exist and throwing the world into a repeating Saturday time loop. Loki wants the Runes of Valhalla, held by the day guardians. In order to find the runes first, Buzz and Mary travel, with the help of a huge magic tree, to the cloud realm, to Atlantis, and to the underworld, battling magic and danger. Although the action proceeds at breakneck speed, character development does not suffer; both Mary and Buzz are appealing. Some knowledge of Norse mythology will help readers unravel the multiple gods and complicated plot, but it’s not critical.
The combination of adventure, appealing characters, and high stakes should satisfy middle-grade fantasy fans. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-201009-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Gripping and pretty dark—but, in the end, food, family, friendship, and straight facts win out over guile, greed, and terror.
Rowling buffs up a tale she told her own children about a small, idyllic kingdom nearly destroyed by corrupt officials.
In the peaceful land of Cornucopia, the Ickabog has always been regarded as a legendary menace until two devious nobles play so successfully on the fears of naïve King Fred the Fearless that the once-prosperous land is devastated by ruinous taxes supposedly spent on defense while protesters are suppressed and the populace is terrorized by nighttime rampages. Pastry chef Bertha Beamish organizes a breakout from the local dungeon just as her son, Bert, and his friend Daisy Dovetail arrive…with the last Ickabog, who turns out to be real after all. Along with full plates of just deserts for both heroes and villains, the story then dishes up a metaphorical lagniappe in which the monster reveals the origins of the human race. The author frames her story as a set of ruminations on how evil can grow and people can come to believe unfounded lies. She embeds these themes in an engrossing, tightly written adventure centered on a stomach-wrenching reign of terror. The story features color illustrations by U.S. and Canadian children selected through an online contest. Most characters are cued as White in the text; a few illustrations include diverse representation.
Gripping and pretty dark—but, in the end, food, family, friendship, and straight facts win out over guile, greed, and terror. (Fantasy. 10-13)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-73287-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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SEEN & HEARD
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