A thoughtful coming-of-age narrative infused with fantasy and history.
An African American tween from Long Island finds herself in another dimension with residents of a historical village.
Twelve-year-old Rowan once loved spending the summer in Manhattan with her paternal aunt Monica. But ever since her father’s death, she’s had no interest in things she once enjoyed. After her mother insists, Rowan finds herself back at Aunt Monica’s, a place she painfully associates with her dad. Wandering around Central Park taking pictures with his old-fashioned camera, which she treasures, leads to an unbelievable adventure when Rowan stumbles through a portal into another time. She meets a girl named Lily who tells her she’s in Seneca Village, where people have magical abilities. Lily also shares the fact that Sage, a girl from the village, recently went missing. Rowan meets community elder Auntie Alma, who believes the portal may be malfunctioning, potentially threatening their way of life. After Rowan returns to her own time, she does research and confirms that Seneca Village was a real place, founded by free Black people and razed in 1857 to create Central Park. When Rowan returns to the village, she gets caught up in the search for Sage as well as efforts to repair the portal and preserve the hidden magical place. In her fresh, engaging, and surprise-filled middle-grade debut, celebrated YA author Garrett successfully blends genres. Rowan is an entertaining and engaging protagonist who’s surrounded by an interesting supporting cast.
A thoughtful coming-of-age narrative infused with fantasy and history. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: April 15, 2025
ISBN: 9781419773334
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
An endearing protagonist runs the first, fast leg of Reynolds' promising relay.
Castle “Ghost” Cranshaw feels like he’s been running ever since his dad pulled that gun on him and his mom—and used it.
His dad’s been in jail three years now, but Ghost still feels the trauma, which is probably at the root of the many “altercations” he gets into at middle school. When he inserts himself into a practice for a local elite track team, the Defenders, he’s fast enough that the hard-as-nails coach decides to put him on the team. Ghost is surprised to find himself caring enough about being on the team that he curbs his behavior to avoid “altercations.” But Ma doesn’t have money to spare on things like fancy running shoes, so Ghost shoplifts a pair that make his feet feel impossibly light—and his conscience correspondingly heavy. Ghost’s narration is candid and colloquial, reminiscent of such original voices as Bud Caldwell and Joey Pigza; his level of self-understanding is both believably childlike and disarming in its perception. He is self-focused enough that secondary characters initially feel one-dimensional, Coach in particular, but as he gets to know them better, so do readers, in a way that unfolds naturally and pleasingly. His three fellow “newbies” on the Defenders await their turns to star in subsequent series outings. Characters are black by default; those few white people in Ghost’s world are described as such.
An endearing protagonist runs the first, fast leg of Reynolds' promising relay. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-5015-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Caitlyn Dlouhy/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
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Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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