An endearing and engaging middle-grade adventure.
In Saller’s middle-grade novel, when reunited twin sisters are accidentally sent into the past, they must learn to work together to get home.
Days before starting middle school, Ellie Gray’s life changes when her estranged twin sister’s birthday visit becomes permanent. Katherine Stover, who goes by Kat, grew up with the twins’ actor father while Ellie grew up with their scientist mother. Despite being identical genetically, Ellie and Kat are extremely different: Ellie is athletic and popular, Kat is bookish and introverted. Almost immediately, their personalities clash when Ellie drags Kat along on a first-day-of-school prank. Things come to a head when Kat discovers the not-yet-working time machine their mother has built. Believing it to be another of Ellie’s pranks, Kat accidentally activates the “gizmo,” propelling the twins back to 1970. Not knowing how to work the time machine, Ellie and Kat are stranded with no way back to 2020. To navigate the past, the twins have to learn to work together using Kat’s research and acting skills in tandem with Ellie’s parkour, aikido, and gymnastic abilities. Saller’s conceptualization of time travel is unconvoluted; while most time-travel stories require their protagonists to carefully avoid changing the future, that is not a concern here. (There is a brief mention of a “ripple effect” that could “result in something catastrophic happening in the future,” but for the most part they don’t worry about it.) While this requires some suspension of disbelief, it does make for a more enjoyable narrative focusing on the twins’ relationship, without the clutter of time-travel logistics that might alienate the young target audience. Saller includes a lot of references to Harry Potter, which may be a less-relevant reference than it was 10 years ago. The action is fun and the descriptions are engaging, especially of 1970s Chicago: “Several large, unframed theater posters were stuck with tape onto dingy and cracked plaster walls.”
An endearing and engaging middle-grade adventure.Pub Date: April 15, 2025
ISBN: 9781964301020
Page Count: 284
Publisher: Duckweed Books
Review Posted Online: April 10, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.
In Florence’s middle-grade fantasy novel, a young girl’s heart is tested in the face of an evil, spreading Darkness.
Eleven-year-old Lydia, “freckle-cheeked and round-eyed, with hair the color of pine bark and fair skin,” is struggling with the knowledge that she has reached the age to apprentice as an herbalist. Lydia is reluctant to leave her beloved, magical Mulberry Glen and her cozy Housetree in the woods—she’ll miss Garder, the Glen’s respected philosopher; her fairy guardian Pit; her human friend Livy; and even the mischievous part-elf, part-imp, part-human twins Zale and Zamilla. But the twins go missing after hearing of a soul-sapping Darkness that has swallowed a forest and is creeping into minds and engulfing entire towns. They have secretly left to find a rare fruit that, it is said, will stop the Darkness if thrown into the heart of the mountain that rises out of the lethal forest. Lydia follows, determined to find the twins before they, too, fall victim to the Darkness. During her journey, accompanied by new friends, she gradually realizes that she herself has a dangerous role to play in the quest to stop the Darkness. In this well-crafted fantasy, Florence skillfully equates the physical manifestation of Darkness with the feelings of insecurity and powerlessness that Lydia first struggles with when thinking of leaving the Glen. Such negative thoughts grow more intrusive the closer she and her friends come to the Darkness—and to Lydia’s ultimate, powerfully rendered test of character, which leads to a satisfyingly realistic, not quite happily-ever-after ending. Highlights include a delightfully haunting, reality-shifting library and a deft sprinkling of Latin throughout the text; Pit’s pet name for Lydia is mea flosculus (“my little flower”). Fine-lined ink drawings introducing each chapter add a pleasing visual element to this well-grounded fairy tale.
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781956393095
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Waxwing Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship.
A young tennis champion becomes the target of revenge.
In this sequel to Legacy and the Queen (2019), Legacy Petrin and her friends Javi and Pippa have returned to Legacy’s home province and the orphanage run by her father. With her friends’ help, she is in training to defend her championship when they discover that another player, operating under the protection of High Consul Silla, is presenting herself as Legacy. She is so convincing that the real Legacy is accused of being an imitation. False Legacy has become a hero to the masses, further strengthening Silla’s hold, and it becomes imperative to uncover and defeat her. If Legacy is to win again, she must play her imposter while disguised as someone else. Winning at tennis is not just about money and fame, but resisting Silla’s plans to send more young people into brutal mines with little hope of better lives. Legacy will have to overcome her fears and find the magic that allowed her to claim victory in the past. This story, with its elements of sports, fantasy, and social consciousness that highlight tensions between the powerful and those they prey upon, successfully continues the series conceived by late basketball superstar Bryant. As before, the tennis matches are depicted with pace and spirit. Legacy and Javi have brown skin; most other characters default to White.
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-949520-19-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Granity Studios
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
