Entertaining if rife with stereotype; Joseph Bruchac's Wolf Mark (2011) is both comparable and better
A spooky series second-parter takes a 17th-century 13-year-old English boy and his friends across the Atlantic to the magical New World.
Jem, an unacknowledged bastard son of Charles II with "gypsy looks," is overjoyed that he's soon to see his friends Tolly and Ann. The pair has been traveling with a troupe of players since the trio's joint escape from wicked Count Cazalon at the conclusion of The Jade Boy (2013). Their celebration goes horribly wrong when an evil force spirits away gentle, white 12-year-old Ann. Though the well-meaning adults all hope to rescue Ann, Tolly and Jem hare off on their own rescue mission—only to find themselves on a trans-Atlantic ship journey. Psychic Tolly, the African former slave, can magically tell that Ann is somewhere aboard, but where? Their quest is aided by the kindly ship captain and his crewman Mingan, a “noble savage” stereotype who's both bizarre and unpalatable. The Native American Mingan has no named tribe but merges characteristics of native nations from across North America with the usual fantasy native fare of werewolves and skinwalkers, along with the more inexplicable: constant reference to his waist-long hair threaded with "scores of tiny white skulls."
Entertaining if rife with stereotype; Joseph Bruchac's Wolf Mark (2011) is both comparable and better . (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-78370-058-5
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Templar/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
This can’t be the last we ever hear of the Legendary Alston Boys of the purely surreal Logan County—imaginative,...
Can this really be the first time readers meet the Legendary Alston Boys of Logan County? Cousins and veteran sleuths Otto and Sheed Alston show us that we are the ones who are late to their greatness.
These two black boys are coming to terms with the end of their brave, heroic summer at Grandma’s, with a return to school just right around the corner. They’ve already got two keys to the city, but the rival Epic Ellisons—twin sisters Wiki and Leen—are steadily gaining celebrity across Logan County, Virginia, and have in hand their third key to the city. No way summer can end like this! These young people are powerful, courageous, experienced adventurers molded through their heroic commitment to discipline and deduction. They’ve got their shared, lifesaving maneuvers committed to memory (printed in a helpful appendix) and ready to save any day. Save the day they must, as a mysterious, bendy gentleman and an oversized, clingy platypus have been unleashed on the city of Fry, and all the residents and their belongings seem to be frozen in time and place. Will they be able to solve this one? With total mastery, Giles creates in Logan County an exuberant vortex of weirdness, where the commonplace sits cheek by jowl with the utterly fantastic, and populates it with memorable characters who more than live up to their setting.
This can’t be the last we ever hear of the Legendary Alston Boys of the purely surreal Logan County—imaginative, thrill-seeking readers, this is a series to look out for. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-46083-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Versify/HMH
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
A solid debut: fluent, funny and eminently sequel-worthy.
Inventively tweaking a popular premise, Jensen pits two Incredibles-style families with superpowers against each other—until a new challenge rises to unite them.
The Johnsons invariably spit at the mere mention of their hated rivals, the Baileys. Likewise, all Baileys habitually shake their fists when referring to the Johnsons. Having long looked forward to getting a superpower so that he too can battle his clan’s nemeses, Rafter Bailey is devastated when, instead of being able to fly or something else cool, he acquires the “power” to strike a match on soft polyester. But when hated classmate Juanita Johnson turns up newly endowed with a similarly bogus power and, against all family tradition, they compare notes, it becomes clear that something fishy is going on. Both families regard themselves as the heroes and their rivals as the villains. Someone has been inciting them to fight each other. Worse yet, that someone has apparently developed a device that turns real superpowers into silly ones. Teaching themselves on the fly how to get past their prejudice and work together, Rafter, his little brother, Benny, and Juanita follow a well-laid-out chain of clues and deductions to the climactic discovery of a third, genuinely nefarious family, the Joneses, and a fiendishly clever scheme to dispose of all the Baileys and Johnsons at once. Can they carry the day?
A solid debut: fluent, funny and eminently sequel-worthy. (Adventure. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-06-220961-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
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