Entertaining story-mongering, with traditional and original tropes artfully intertwined. (Fantasy. 11-14)
The names change, but the characters and themes not so much as Gidwitz takes a pair of children through a third series of folk-tale scenarios punctuated with washes of blood, fire, tears and parental issues that presage readers’ encounters with Bruno Bettelheim.
Before finally making good on their vow never to part, twins Jorinda and Joringel hie off on separate plotlines. Jorinda, as Ashputtle (freely translated as “Toilet Cleaner”), is betrothed to a comically clueless prince, survives three nights in an ogre’s haunted castle, becomes a child tyrant queen and is murdered. Joringel, magically reconstituted after having his head snipped off by his stepfather, swallows a fear-killing juniper berry, gives Sleeping Beauty CPR and rescues his sister from hell with help from the devil’s grandmother. So intrusive a narrator that even his characters hear him, Gidwitz offers commentary and (necessarily frequent) warnings about upcoming shocks. He then later steps in to shepherd his protagonists to modern Brooklyn for some metafictional foolery before closing with notes on his sources. After many tears, few of them happy ones, and much reference to suppressed feelings of anger and guilt, the children are reconciled with their neglectful, widowed mother and go on to a happy-ever-after in an anarchic day camp dubbed Jungreich, the Kingdom of Children.
Entertaining story-mongering, with traditional and original tropes artfully intertwined. (Fantasy. 11-14)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-525-42615-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
They may have (apparently) lost round one in trilogy opener Billionaire’s Curse (2010), but 13-year-old Gerald and his squabbling twin sidekicks Sam and Ruby aren't giving up. Here they get a taste of the luxury an estate worth £20 billion brings while jetting off to India in high style to claim a second magical artifact before (presumed) murderer and all-around bad guy Mason Green can reach it. Laying broad hints that All Is Not as It Seems—or, as several characters repeatedly whisper, “Nothing is certain.”—Newsome again crafts a lighter-than-air caper. It's all heavily dependent on contrived clues, blundering or oblivious adults, chaperones who consistently vanish just before attackers arrive, conveniently spotty communications, lurid visions and massive gems that evidently sit around for the taking. The pace never lets up, though, and along with learning a bit more about the 1,600-year-long secret that Gerald’s family has been charged with keeping, the young folk survive multiple kidnappings, escapes, chases and life-threatening mishaps. Inevitably they face off with Green again, here inside an ancient Indian temple prone to sudden massive floods. Fans of 39 Clues–style adventures will be swept along. (illustrations not seen) (Adventure. 11-14)
Pub Date: May 17, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-194492-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There's a lot better out there than this. (Steampunk. 11-13)
A teeming cast, a mare’s nest of plotlines and characters with ambiguous agendas muddle this sequel to The Brimstone Key (2010).
The morass of steampunk and fantasy conventions includes giant armored battle suits and flying cars, zombies, magical weapons and shapechanging Faerie familiars. In the midst of this, the four young Grey Griffins begin to drift apart. Natalia makes new friends, and Ernie, still smarting over events from the previous volume, splits off to lead a band of costumed vigilantes. Meanwhile, Harley becomes the assistant to a renowned inventor who is wasting away from an unidentified illness, and Max has confusing visions of the supposedly evil Otto Von Strife. This last character’s conveniently available notebook reveals that he’s building a world-threatening Paragon Engine. Led by mysterious instructor Obadiah Strange, the Grey Griffins reunite first on a failed mission that leaves them watching as Von Strife’s teleporting associate Smoke whisks away both Strange and a magical (?) relic called the Schrödinger Box, then to mount an attack on the Paragon Engine that ends in a cliffhanger. Readers hoping to keep track of who’s who and what’s where will definitely want to start with the previous episode, but they are likely to feel that they’ve wasted their time after a climactic revelation renders the entire plot nonsensical.
There's a lot better out there than this. (Steampunk. 11-13)Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-316-04519-3
Page Count: 354
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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