Overstuffed. (Fantasy. 9-12)
Lorelei is an 11-year-old white girl whose parents and little brother disappeared mysteriously while the family was on a camping trip in the mountains to view a comet.
She is taken in by an aunt and uncle who don't believe that she actually saw a tentacled monster abduct her family. When Lorelei makes one last visit to her former family home, about to be sold, she stumbles into a portal that takes her into the world of Veloran, the titular Wishing World, where she bumps into a strange set of allies who seem to have knowledge of the monster that took her family. Initially, there are some humorous moments that kids will appreciate, and to imagine a comet as an inhabited magical world is an impressive premise. Unfortunately, Fahnestock jumps right into the otherworldly, leaving little room for buildup. The pacing is swift as Lorelei encounters an inundation of odd fantastical beasts, and readers may have trouble keeping up. It’s as if Fahnestock wanted to insert every single weird creature he could imagine into one story. For example, there are the dog-sized cockroaches, a knight-carrying pug, and the rainbow assortment of Spanglish-speaking Flimflams that, as Lorelei describes, sound "like a couple of the kids at my school who were from Mexico." The story relies on an abundance of whimsy, which crowds out the moral conflicts that could have given it needed weight.
Overstuffed. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7653-8588-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Starscape/Tom Doherty
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
Life in the seaside village has been hard for Adrianne and her family, even before the arrival of the mermaid. Since Papa’s death, they’ve been living with horrible Auntie Minnah, the village boys ignore Adrianne in favor of wealthier and prettier girls and the villagers despise the whole family. Adrianne gets the opportunity for her dream job, but as soon as things start looking up, the Windwaithe Mermaid comes, summoning Adrianne and terrifying the superstitious villagers. Now Adrianne needs to make a choice between a magical life of undersea romance and the poverty and degradation she knows on land. It ought to be an easy choice, but perhaps not. Lucky, lucky Adrianne. Her magical adventure will bring out her true potential—as a girl who is “quite attractive” and whose outer beauty is now visible both to herself and to the handsome boys of the island. Readers obsessed with paranormal romance could do worse, but they probably won’t remember this for very long. (Fantasy. 10-12)
Pub Date: July 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-09734-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2010
The scion of a once-prominent, wealthy family, Hector Bell engages in ingenious bartering and wishful thinking to support his wife and sons, Cyrus and Darius, on the decaying estate, while he writes stories no one wants to read. Now it’s time to present the town with the Bell Gift, a requirement of the original land grant, but unlike his forebears, Hector has nothing to give. Exasperated by Hector, Cyrus is preparing to head off to university and study engineering, but his younger brother, Darius, longs to solve their father’s dilemma. When a small earthquake opens up a cave on the estate, Darius thinks he’s found the answer, but each step brings new challenges. He’ll need inventive ideas, resourcefulness and most of all help from his friends to meet them. Much of the pleasure in this ode to “life [as] what happens while you’re busy making plans” lies in Hirsch’s dry, understated humor and his subtly charming characters, who are willing to put up with one another’s foibles and eccentricities, however annoying, for the sake of friendship. (Fiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-935279-65-5
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: July 29, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2010
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