Carus’s (911: The Book of Help, p. 950, etc.) storytellers draw motifs from traditional folklore wrapped around fiery dragons that are more enchanting than menacing. Each of the 15 tales comes from Japan, China, the Ukraine, Korea, or other exotic settings. There are tales featuring an unlikely shepherd lad outwitting a fiery dragon to save a kingdom; a fair maiden nursing a dragon’s child back to health and negotiating the sacrifice of fish to appease the dragon and save a village; soldiers that gamble with a dragon for seven years of safety in return for the challenge to uncover the answer to three riddles; and a “left-over” dragon who finds a family and a name when he finds a baby in the woods. Carus chooses work (much of it first published in Cricket magazine) from notable authors such as Eric A. Kimmel, Gloria Skurzynski, and Jane Yolen, who know how to craft a story. The black-and-white illustrations, several full-page, are detailed and attempt to evoke the culture of each tale. The familiar motifs, exotic settings, and protagonists that demonstrate courage, cleverness, resourcefulness, and compassion make this collection one that will entertain and feed minds and the desire for dragons of all those who read or hear these tales. (Short stories. 9-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-8126-2664-8
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Cricket
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship.
A young tennis champion becomes the target of revenge.
In this sequel to Legacy and the Queen (2019), Legacy Petrin and her friends Javi and Pippa have returned to Legacy’s home province and the orphanage run by her father. With her friends’ help, she is in training to defend her championship when they discover that another player, operating under the protection of High Consul Silla, is presenting herself as Legacy. She is so convincing that the real Legacy is accused of being an imitation. False Legacy has become a hero to the masses, further strengthening Silla’s hold, and it becomes imperative to uncover and defeat her. If Legacy is to win again, she must play her imposter while disguised as someone else. Winning at tennis is not just about money and fame, but resisting Silla’s plans to send more young people into brutal mines with little hope of better lives. Legacy will have to overcome her fears and find the magic that allowed her to claim victory in the past. This story, with its elements of sports, fantasy, and social consciousness that highlight tensions between the powerful and those they prey upon, successfully continues the series conceived by late basketball superstar Bryant. As before, the tennis matches are depicted with pace and spirit. Legacy and Javi have brown skin; most other characters default to White.
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-949520-19-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Granity Studios
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
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