A chosen-ones fantasy for readers befuddled by climate change.
Four friends combat climate change in this follow-up to The Time Fetch (2013) that is laden with a history of weather-related lore.
Edward, Feenix, Danton, and Brigit were Brooklyn eighth graders preventing the unraveling of time when last readers met them. Their save-the-world challenge this round is a winter that won’t end. When a snowstorm marks the first day of spring, science enthusiast Edward finds an odd cocoon that he swipes for research. Much like the Time Fetch stone in Herrick’s earlier volume, each of the four friends happens upon a mysterious talisman, all while trying to understand why the slimy new school superintendent is so darn creepy (those tiny feet of his), where the flocks of robins are coming from, and what haze is keeping them all from remembering just what they’re supposed to be doing. Vacillating between scientific reasoning and lore from worldwide cultures, the descriptions of beautiful legends of seasons and the sobering study of climate change are so rich they nearly overshadow the central characters. Chapters present the rotating third-person perspectives of the quartet, giving each equal airtime. The structure gives readers the pieces to complete thoughts on their own without spoon-feeding them answers. The rich and creepy fantasy element offsets the familiarity of forgetfulness caused by a thick shroud of archaic magic. The protagonists are cued as White, Black, and Latinx.
A chosen-ones fantasy for readers befuddled by climate change. (Fantasy. 11-14)Pub Date: April 5, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64375-099-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A few promising, even brilliant bits are lost in an ill-constructed jumble of warring plotlines and ambiguous agendas.
As fleets of hostile warships gather over a floating city, a young thief finds himself the object of an urgent manhunt.
Readers can be excused for coming away bewildered by Sheehan’s competing storylines, disconnected events, genre-bending revelations, and refusal to fit any of the major players in the all-White–presenting cast consistently into the roles of villain, ally, or even protagonist. Continually shifting through points of view and annoyingly punctuated with an omniscient narrator’s portentous commentary, the tale centers on the exploits of 12-year-old street urchin Milo Quick and his squad of juvenile ragamuffins (seemingly juvenile at any rate; one is eventually revealed to be something else entirely) in an aerial city of Dickensian squalor threatened by a multinational flying armada. Though a lot of people are after Milo, ranging from the swashbuckling crew of a flying privateer hired (ostensibly) to kidnap him and a vengeful punk bent on bloody murder to a sinister truant officer paid lavishly by mysterious parties to watch over him, he ultimately winds up—or so it seems—being no more than a red herring all along. The actual target is revealed piecemeal in conversations and flashbacks before the commencement of a climactic bombardment and an abrupt cutoff in which three side characters, miraculously shrugging off multiple knife and bullet wounds, themselves suddenly take center stage to set up a sequel.
A few promising, even brilliant bits are lost in an ill-constructed jumble of warring plotlines and ambiguous agendas. (Science fiction. 11-14)Pub Date: March 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-10951-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2022
A predictable, fast-paced sports tale with some unexpected heart.
Harrison has led a hard-knock life up until he’s taken in by loving foster parents “Coach” and Jennifer.
After he inadvertently causes the man’s death, Harrison is taken from a brutal foster home run by a farmer who uses foster kids as unpaid labor, a situation blithely ignored by the county. His new foster parents are different. Coach is in charge of the middle school football team, and all 13-year-old Harrison has ever wanted to do is to play football, the perfect outlet for his seething undercurrent of anger at life. Oversized for his age, he’s brilliant at the game but also over-the-top aggressive, until a hit makes his knee start aching—and then life deals him another devastating blow. The pain isn’t an injury but bone cancer. Many of the characters—loving friends Justin and Becky, bully Leo, a mean-spirited math teacher, cancer victim Marty and the major, an amputee veteran who comes to rehabilitate Harrison after life-changing surgery—are straight out of the playbook for maudlin middle-grade fiction. Nevertheless, this effort edges above trite because of well-depicted football scenes and the sheer force of Harrison himself. His altogether believable anger diminishes his likability but breathes life into an otherwise stock role.
A predictable, fast-paced sports tale with some unexpected heart. (Fiction. 11-14)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-208956-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2012
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