A gripping adventure enhanced by a creative plot, lively dialogue, and strong female characters.
In this YA fantasy, teens undertake a rescue mission in a magical alternative world.
The third book in Supplee’s fresh, well-crafted Winnie and the Wizard fantasy series begins with the return of 14-year-old Winnie Harris, her 6-year-old stepbrother, Mikey, and teenage magician Kip to Winnie’s family beach house on Earth after a dangerous mission on an alternative “Frama” world known as Hutra. (The “Frama” worlds, introduced in Book 1 [Frama-12, 2022], are accessed through the use of “Frama-scopes,” magical devices once solely the province of powerful time guardians.) Winnie, famed on Frama worlds as army general Windemere, learns that the pet toad Mikey brought back from Hutra is actually an enchanted princess from Aylen Isle. In a dream visitation, Princess Gwen begs Winnie to take her home and undo the spell. Winnie can’t resist. She “had already encountered her share of crazies” during her previous Frama missions. “But a fairy-tale world? The possibility sounded too nutty to pass up.” Besides, Winnie needed to return another travel companion, a large bird, to its original world to ensure its survival, so she might as well do both. By mutual consent, the three adventurers and the toad/princess jump through a time portal to Aylen Isle. With an ear for well-paced, plot-furthering dialogue and a flair for worldbuilding, the author molds familiar fairy-tale tropes (tree sprites, “leafling” fairies, two princesses, and a kingdom in peril) into a dynamic adventure involving “mother” trees as healing havens, carnivorous plants, an attempted royal coup, a lethal, gatekeeping “Myst,” and sentient, magic “glow stones.” This vivid fantasy can be enjoyed on its own. Readers of the first two books, however, will find a rewarding progression of intriguing elements, including an amphibian military general that inhabits Mikey’s small body, Winnie and Kip’s thorny and evolving relationship, and the motivations of Winnie and Kip’s interfering nemesis, Krell, whom innocent Mikey still loves as his “non-Dad.”
A gripping adventure enhanced by a creative plot, lively dialogue, and strong female characters.Pub Date: July 24, 2024
ISBN: 9781509255955
Page Count: 294
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An entertaining and atmospheric, though sometimes clumsy, exploration of the true cost of beauty.
In this retelling of a classic, a drama student’s obsession with beauty leads her down a dark—and possibly deadly—path.
Eighteen-year-old Penny Paxton is beginning her first year at Dorian Drama Academy in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she hopes to follow in her starlet mother’s footsteps—and earn the love that her mother has never seemed to offer. At Dorian, Penny is mentored by Royal Shakespeare Company legend Orlagh Camran, who makes her the compelling offer of a portrait by the Masked Painter, a mysterious artist with the ability to gift his subjects everlasting youth and beauty. But shortly after Penny’s portrait is complete, several of the Masked Painter’s subjects are found murdered. Fearing that she’s made a terrible mistake and may become the next victim, Penny, who’s gay, begins to investigate the murders with the help of an unlikely ally. As she attempts to uncover the truth surrounding the Masked Painter and the murders, she’s forced to reckon with her own toxic obsession with beauty. This chilling, atmospheric novel, inspired by The Picture of Dorian Gray, is entertaining and full of twists, though some of the reveals feel contrived and some questions are left unanswered. The plot unravels at a leisurely pace but eventually builds to an action-packed (if somewhat convoluted) conclusion. Most characters are cued white.
An entertaining and atmospheric, though sometimes clumsy, exploration of the true cost of beauty. (content note, author’s note, bonus scene) (Fantasy thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9781250346797
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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