A sparkling series opener featuring dynamic, winsome characters.
Wolf’s (The Misses Brontë’s Establishment, 2015) YA fantasy delivers a troubled, modern-day teenager to a land populated by kindly dragons and villainous slayers.
When she was 10 years old, Mattie Sharpe of Burbank, California, found a dragon egg in LA’s Griffith Park. After it hatched, she named the dragon Toutles, and they became best friends. Eventually, however, Toutles grew too large to hide in Mattie’s room, so her mother ordered her to take the creature to the zoo. The girl instead freed her companion in Griffith Park, only to see him vanish through a shimmering portal. Seven years later, Mattie is still scarred by the loss of her friend; she hangs out with bullies, drinks, and worries little about failing high school. One day, she cuts class and visits the famous Chinese theater in Hollywood. When she sees one of its dragon sculptures move, she’s compelled to run toward it, and doing so propels her into the realm of Cavernis, where she reunites with her childhood friend, now called Artorius. The consumption of a bit of dragon’s blood helps her understand him and other giant reptiles who attend the Academia Sollertibus Hydris, or the Academy for Clever Hydras. The school’s president, Praeses, informs her that she’s in Cavernis to fulfill a prophecy—one that pits her against the followers of St. George. Wolf does an excellent job of portraying teenage cynicism; for example, Mattie, who used to love animals, says, “Why bother to save the world—or its wildlife...when corporate greed was doing its best to destroy it?” Our heroine’s attitude begins shifting, though, once she’s in Cavernis facing new challenges, such as learning to sword fight and joust, and engaging in a surreal social life. The author has fun representing every kind of dragon imaginable, including two-legged wyverns, half-human nāgas, and the long, rippling Asian variety. She also craftily builds upon the legend of St. George and the dragon to give the academy a nation of worthy opponents. Woven finely throughout is a subtle romance that readers will be eager to see blossom in future installments. An all-out-war in this book’s finale should please action fans.
A sparkling series opener featuring dynamic, winsome characters.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A quietly powerful story, at times harrowing but ultimately a joy to read.
In this novel, life turns toward a dark horizon for a precocious adolescent grieving for her father in 1941 Tennessee.
It’s difficult to harbor secrets in a rural mountain town of maybe 80 souls, especially when adult siblings live within spitting distance of the family home. Most of the townsmen work at the sawmill, and most of the young women have been harassed at one time or another by creepy Johnny Monroe. But Louisa May McAllister, nicknamed Wildflower, knows that revealing her frequent forays to the cemetery, where she talks to her beloved late father, would only rile her embittered mother. She also knows to hide her “secret sense,” as it would evoke scorn from all save eccentric Aunt Sadie, who shares her tomboy niece’s gift. Those secrets come at a cost when, on one of her graveyard visits, Louisa May ignores her premonition of danger. The consequences—somewhat expected yet still horrific—are buffered by the visions into which the 13-year-old escapes. Sharp-witted, strong, curious and distrustful of any authority figure not living up to her standards—including God—Louisa May immerses us in her world with astute observations and wonderfully turned phrases, with nary a cliché to be found. She could be an adolescent Scout Finch, had Scout’s father died unexpectedly and her life taken a bad turn. Though her story is full of pathos and loss, her sorrow is genuine and refreshingly free of self-pity. She accepts that she and her mother are “like vinegar and soda, always reacting,” that her best friend has grown distant, and that despite the preacher’s condemnation, a young suicide victim should be sent “to the head of heaven’s line.” Her connection to the land—a presence as vividly portrayed as any character—makes her compassionate but tough; she’s as willing to see trees as angels as she is to join her brothers-in-law in seeking revenge. By necessity, Louisa May grows up quickly, but by her secret sense, she also understands forgiveness.
A quietly powerful story, at times harrowing but ultimately a joy to read.Pub Date: April 22, 2012
ISBN: 978-0983588238
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Wild Lily Arts
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
The latest in Sathy’s (Attack of the Chicken Nugget Man: A California CST Adventure, 2009, etc.) series of test prep titles disguises educational tips in a funny middle-grade reader.
Chris Robb’s day is off to an inauspicious start when he accidentally wears his sister’s pink socks to school, and only goes downhill from there. Chris isn’t the best of students and his inability to focus and remember the most basic things—like his teacher’s absurd name, Ms. Bubblebrain—gets him into constant trouble. Between Chris and his colorful cast of classmates, Ms. Bubblebrain can hardly keep order. Scenarios, such as the entire class falling down like a row of dominoes when a panicked Chris runs right into his teacher, are illustrated in a high quality black-and-white cartoon style. The funny, well-illustrated story will likely appeal to struggling readers and is certainly much more entertaining than typical test prep materials. Sample standardized test questions with fill-in circles appear at the end of each chapter to acclimate students to test-taking. Some questions are too easy, but others require students to dig deep. Each question has one overly goofy answer, which might prove a bit too tempting for some students: For the question, “What is the antonym (opposite) of yell?” choice D reads, “I don't know, but this one time, I yelled so loud that my tongue flew out of my mouth and got stuck to the wall in my classroom.” The book is designed to be used either as a read-alone or as a read aloud book by teachers or parents. For this reason, an appendix includes lists of additional activities as well as the core standards, referenced throughout the book by way of superscript notations. The notations might prove distracting to some readers, but are set off in a non-bold font that most readers should be able to ignore. The fill-in style questions, however, make it less than ideal for library use. This fun book uses elements of humorous novels and cartoons to emphasize core elementary standards in a way that will likely appeal to both teachers and students.
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0982172940
Page Count: 162
Publisher: Student Solutions, Inc.
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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