Hoffman has brought to life a huge world worth exploring for young girls in search of exciting stories about female...
Having saved her people from enslavement, Dara must now save the world from the forces of Chaos in the concluding chapter of the Shamra Chronicles.
In the third volume of his Shamra trilogy, Hoffman winds up the threads he had set in place in the two previous volumes. Dara finally reaches Stone Mountain to join forces with the hunter clan left behind when the rest of the Shamra people migrated two centuries before. She knows that ultimately she must defeat Chaos, the powerful force that had been disabled but not destroyed by the clanswoman Anis. But first, Dara must reunite the two estranged factions of Shamra and teach them how to escape the dogmatic religion and corrupt social standards that had led to their dire circumstances in the first place. Drea and Atyra—two other legendary women featured in a previous volume—also return from the shadowy otherworld where Shamra go after death, but Dara can’t be sure of their intentions. Are they her comrades or her enemies? Or are they simply using her for their own ends? After Dara gives birth to twin girls named Elise and Janae (featured in the bonus novella Safe Haven), she gains insight into the dynamics of family loyalties, which helps her overcome the interpersonal conflict that complicates her quest. The many people—Mitchkeys, Rulan, Shrieks and others—whom Dara had encountered on her previous adventures all join forces to finally defeat the Chaos that threatens them all. Although the previous volume, Shamra Divided, seemed disjointed, in the end Hoffman manages to tie together most of the strands that were laid out in the first two books. The most moving subplot involves the redemption of Heber, the Shamra male who had alternately supported and betrayed Dara, while other elements—like the fate of Garz, the evil Troc, whom we last saw chuckling ominously at the end of book one—disappear from the sprawling narrative.
Hoffman has brought to life a huge world worth exploring for young girls in search of exciting stories about female empowerment.Pub Date: May 15, 2011
ISBN: 978-1934267240
Page Count: 369
Publisher: Edge Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
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