A fun, engaging adventure about a tween without powers in a world of superheroes.
A middle-grade SF novel features superheroes, mutant animals, and a boy whose summer plans fall spectacularly apart.
Twenty years after the “Super phenomenon,” when the antibiotics used to treat a lethal stomach parasite that infected much of the world’s population had unexpected DNA side effects, Lincoln City is filled with mutated animals and superhumans—some of them heroes and some of them villains. Twelve-year-old Noah Reagan, a regular human, has big plans for his summer break: avoid the school bullies and take part in the “Summer with Supers Youth Program.” Off to a bad start, with the bullies after him and the program postponed, he finds things getting even worse. He ends up having to work for his dad’s maintenance company after he disobeyed his father and skipped babysitting his younger sisters one day. But cleaning up after mutant beast attacks proves to be a better activity than he expected when he allies himself with his crush, Ruth Keller, a closeted Super. They start investigating the large number of mutant assaults in the city. As danger mounts, Noah needs to remain under the radar and avoid his dad; the police chief; the Supers; and an unknown enemy whose nefarious plans may already be underway. Hapless, ordinary Noah and empowered, smart Ruth lead the intriguing cast of characters in Tucker’s buoyant, fast-paced, slightly zany series opener. Noah’s earnestness to prove himself worthy comes with a dose of realism when addressing the different ways the new world order has negatively impacted his own family: “ ‘So, we just let this continue?’ Anger—it crawled slowly into my throat. ‘We just let my father continue to work for scraps, and my sisters live off TV dinners?’ ” This entertaining journey will particularly appeal to readers interested in comics and superheroes.
A fun, engaging adventure about a tween without powers in a world of superheroes.Pub Date: April 10, 2023
ISBN: 9798986487854
Page Count: 190
Publisher: First Fruit Press
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A captivating adventure about the strength of love and family.
A Nigerian city girl visits her estranged grandmother in a remote village and is confronted with family secrets.
Thirteen-year-old Simi has only known Lagos—until her mother needs to go to London for work. Her parents are divorced, and Simi can’t stay with her perpetually busy father, so she is reluctantly shipped off to spend her summer vacation with her maternal grandmother in Ajao, a remote village with no modern technology. Soon after her exhausting journey by bus and taxi, Simi goes for a walk and is drawn to go the wrong way—into the forest and toward a forbidden lake, where she is briefly transported to a different world, something she at first believes is a dream. Although her staunchly Christian mother does not want her exposed to the Yoruba gods and goddesses her grandmother follows, Simi later learns a story that is connected to her family about Oshun, the river and water goddess. As more children are lured toward the lake, Simi feels compelled to come forward and risk everything to heal the wounds in her family and help the village that has come to feel like home. Traoré’s debut is brimming with earnest, admiring details about Yoruba culture and traditions that are woven into the worldbuilding. As Simi’s fast-paced adventure unfolds, readers will be swept away by the limited omniscient narration in this plot-driven story with a strong sense of place.
A captivating adventure about the strength of love and family. (author's note, glossary) (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: July 26, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-78192-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Chicken House/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
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