An intriguing, fresh take on the vampire genre, but doesn’t quite fulfill its promise.
Everson presents a mermaid/vampire tale set in a coastal California town.
Teenage Kristella has a complicated fear of water where she feels that she’s being pulled away from it, but her heart tells her “to go for it.” One day on the beach, she listens to her heart and dives into the ocean. After swimming to a large rock, she hauls herself out of the water and is promptly pulled under when a shark grabs her dangling leg. Thankfully Garrid, the local merman-vampire crossbreed who is new in town, just happens to be at the right place at the right time to fend off the shark and heal her wound. Garrid and his siblings attend Kristella’s school and sit at the same table at lunch where no one really eats. One of the brothers makes it known that he doesn’t much care for Kristella. Not many people know where Garrid’s family lives, mainly because the home is located off the beaten path, and there’s the added mystery that the family is wealthy and the townspeople don’t know Garrid’s parents. Garrid and his brothers aren’t the only unusual residents in Bay View, though; a local werewolf pack/family wants to kill Kristella before the next eclipse and her metamorphosis into a mermaid-vampire. Much of the story takes place in the local high school and around the events of Kristella and company skipping school. Garrid has a deep, dark secret that he won’t share with Kristella, and this provides readers with a brooding hero and a pleading heroine. The story borrows heavily from Stephanie Meyer’s hugely popular Twilight series. There is a distinct lack of prurient elements; there’s no focus on blood, sex or violence. Rather, the tale hinges largely on its dialogue, which is invested heavily in high school drama and emotion. But the lack of any real culture for mermaids keeps the story from being as compelling as it could have been. The plot gets off to an exciting start, but gets bogged down in high-school antics.
An intriguing, fresh take on the vampire genre, but doesn’t quite fulfill its promise.Pub Date: April 7, 2011
ISBN: 978-1453793831
Page Count: 186
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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