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THE FERAL CHILD

Name: THE FERAL CHILD
Author: Che Golden
ISBN: 978-1-62365-120-6

by Che Golden ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 3, 2014

A little incoherent—but enjoyable for all that.

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The dark side of faerie for a younger crowd.

Thirteen-year-old Maddy, living with her grandparents in an Irish village since the deaths of her parents, is a horror of a child. She snarls at her grandparents, is rude to her cousins and is friendly only with Stephen, the toddler next door. It’s no surprise she’s snappish and violent when a boy accosts her on the grounds of a tourist-trap “faerie kingdom.” Unsurprisingly, it’s a poor idea to be rude to strangers on a faerie mound, however ostensibly artificial the mound may be. That very night, Maddy watches in terror as the strange boy—now long of ear and sharp of tooth—kidnaps Stephen. The need to rescue Stephen brings Maddy and two of her cousins into a twisted wintertime Tír na nÓg, its Irish (and somewhat Narnia-inflected) character mixing with a mishmash of names from Norse, Roman, Blackfeet and Inuit myth and history—there’s even a twiggy dryad with an Afro. At first, Maddy’s behavior is hardly heroic; when her grandparents refuse to support her story about Stephen’s abduction, she “sulk[s] and stomp[s] about the house all day,” and her treatment of her cousins at the beginning of the quest is harshly critical. The fantasyland adventure brings the three children together in predictable-if-satisfying ways, however, and feral little Maddy becomes almost likable.

A little incoherent—but enjoyable for all that. (glossary) (Fantasy. 9-11)

Pub Date: June 3, 2014

ISBN: 978-1-62365-120-6

Page Count: 262

Publisher: Mobius

Review Posted Online: April 8, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ACTION & ADVENTURE FICTION | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY

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TUCK EVERLASTING

by Natalie Babbitt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1975

However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...

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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.

However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the first week in August when this takes place to "the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning") help to justify the extravagant early assertion that had the secret about to be revealed been known at the time of the action, the very earth "would have trembled on its axis like a beetle on a pin." (Fantasy. 9-11)

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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
TUCK EVERLASTING
by Natalie Babbitt ; adapted by K. Woodman-Maynard ; illustrated by K. Woodman-Maynard

- BOOK REVIEW
THE MOON OVER HIGH STREET
by Natalie Babbitt

- BOOK REVIEW
JACK PLANK TELLS TALES
by Natalie Babbitt

- SEEN & HEARD
Alexis Bledel To Read ‘Tuck Everlasting’ Audiobook

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KNIGHTS VS. DINOSAURS

by Matt Phelan ; illustrated by Matt Phelan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 23, 2018

Epic—in plot, not length—and as wise and wonderful as Gerald Morris’ Arthurian exploits.

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Who needs dragons when there are Terrible Lizards to be fought?

Having recklessly boasted to King Arthur and the court that he’d slain 40 dragons, Sir Erec can hardly refuse when Merlin offers him more challenging foes…and so it is that in no time (so to speak), Erec, with bookish Sir Hector, the silent and enigmatic Black Knight, and blustering Sir Bors with his thin but doughty squire, Mel, in tow, are hewing away at fearsome creatures sporting natural armor and weapons every bit as effective as knightly ones. Happily, while all the glorious mashing and bashing leads to awesome feats aplenty—who would suspect that a ravening T. Rex could be decked by a well-placed punch to the jaw?—when the dust settles neither bloodshed nor permanent injury has been dealt to either side. Better yet, not even the stunning revelation that two of the Three Stooges–style bumblers aren’t what they seem (“Anyone else here a girl?”) keeps the questers from developing into a well-knit team capable of repeatedly saving one another’s bacon. Phelan endows the all-white human cast with finely drawn, eloquently expressive faces but otherwise works in a loose, movement-filled style, pitting his clanking crew against an almost nonstop onslaught of toothy monsters in a monochrome mix of single scenes and occasional wordless sequential panels.

Epic—in plot, not length—and as wise and wonderful as Gerald Morris’ Arthurian exploits. (Graphic/fantasy hybrid. 9-11)