Longer than necessary but effervescent, funny, and genuine.
Two neglected kids find a sparkly, magical community and great evil in small-town Maine.
Annie’s in her 12th foster home, having infuriated previous families with her pallor and her tendency to attract animals. This current family locks her in a frozen backyard with bloodthirsty wolf/dog hybrids. Jamie’s always lived in the same home, but after seeing his grandmother summon green-skinned monsters from the woods—and become one—he realizes his family’s lifelong threats to eat him weren’t jokes. Just as the supposedly-his-family trolls are about to chomp him, Jamie’s rescued by a dwarf on a snowmobile. Annie’s on the snowmobile too. Jones employs a Roald Dahl–esque sensibility, with evil-adult caricatures, abused yet gentle-hearted kids, and such snacks as “opposite gum” (tastes the opposite of how you feel). Annie goes from “not special”—her name is literally Annie Nobody—to the person whose magic “is our future, our promise, and our salvation.” The glittering elements here are kindness, animals, and the invisible magical town right next to Mount Desert, Maine. Exposition about the bad guy drags. Still to come in future volumes: a battle against evil; Jamie waiting out the year in which he might become a troll; and probably, eventually, parents for Annie and Jamie. Given that Jamie’s almost the only brown-skinned character, more would be welcome.
Longer than necessary but effervescent, funny, and genuine. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: May 3, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-61963-861-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An enthralling fantasy debut exploring exploitation by those in power.
Will 12-year-old Nura be able to outsmart the trickster jinn and save herself and her friends?
Nura lives in the fictional Pakistani town of Meerabagh, where she has worked mining mica to help support her family of five—her mother, herself, and her three younger siblings—since her father’s death. In the mines she has the company of her best friend, Faisal, who is teased by other kids for his stutter, and she enjoys small pleasures like splurging on gulab jamun. Although Maa wants Nura to stop working and attend school, she has no interest in classroom learning and hopes to save up to send her younger siblings to school instead so they can break the family’s cycle of poverty. Following a mining accident in which Faisal and others are lost in the rubble, Nura goes to the rescue. In her quest, she is plunged into the magical, glittering jinn realm, where nothing is as it seems. The author seamlessly weaves into the worldbuilding of the story commentary on real-life problems such as the ravages of child labor and systems that perpetuate inequities. An informative author’s note further explores present-day global cycles of oppression as well as the life-changing power of education. This action-packed story set in a Muslim community moves at a fast pace, with evocative writing that brings the fantasy world to life and lyrical imagery to describe emotions.
An enthralling fantasy debut exploring exploitation by those in power. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: July 5, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5795-6
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A sympathetic, compelling introduction to wolves from the perspective of one wolf and his memorable journey.
Separated from his pack, Swift, a young wolf, embarks on a perilous search for a new home.
Swift’s mother impresses on him early that his “pack belongs to the mountains and the mountains belong to the pack.” His father teaches him to hunt elk, avoid skunks and porcupines, revere the life that gives them life, and “carry on” when their pack is devastated in an attack by enemy wolves. Alone and grieving, Swift reluctantly leaves his mountain home. Crossing into unfamiliar territory, he’s injured and nearly dies, but the need to run, hunt, and live drives him on. Following a routine of “walk-trot-eat-rest,” Swift traverses prairies, canyons, and deserts, encountering men with rifles, hunger, thirst, highways, wild horses, a cougar, and a forest fire. Never imagining the “world could be so big or that I could be so alone in it,” Swift renames himself Wander as he reaches new mountains and finds a new home. Rife with details of the myriad scents, sounds, tastes, touches, and sights in Swift/Wander’s primal existence, the immediacy of his intimate, first-person, present-tense narration proves deeply moving, especially his longing for companionship. Realistic black-and-white illustrations trace key events in this unique survival story, and extensive backmatter fills in further factual information about wolves and their habitat.
A sympathetic, compelling introduction to wolves from the perspective of one wolf and his memorable journey. (additional resources, map) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-289593-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
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