A fast-paced and engaging introduction to SF and environmental activism.
A young activist is recruited to help save the world from the corporations that run her oppressive school in Klisanin’s middle-grade SF thriller.
Twelve-year-old Lexa Andromeda has been emotionally reeling and acting out since the sudden death of her dog, Zara. After her latest bout of mischief results in an accidental injury, her parents decide to send her to Thistleton Academy for Highly Creatives. Lexa is thrilled; throughout her life, she’s heard stories about Thistleton’s unconventional approach to education, which celebrates innovation and encourages autonomy. But when Lexa arrives, she discovers that Thistleton has had a dramatic transformation—what was once a bastion of creativity is now a stifling authoritarian institution funded and controlled by various corporations. Students are forbidden to go outside or have any contact with their families, and they’re under constant surveillance. Headstrong Lexa quickly stokes the ire of Executive Counseling Officer Mr. Yang and Executive Educational Officer Ms. Ballent when she refuses to kowtow to Thistleton’s new culture. To further complicate matters, a specter from the future—a virtual time-traveler named Norbu—appears with an important message: There’s going to be a mass extinction event caused by Thistleton and its partners…and he needs Lexa, a budding environmental activist, to help prevent it. With the world in peril, Lexa teams up with her friends Jack, Sage, and Will to save the planet. This action-packed book is an entertaining and engaging story about friendship, grief, and empowerment. The book has a dynamic, racially diverse cast of characters: Lexa and Jack (both 12 years old) are illustrated with light skin and dark hair, but are otherwise racially ambiguous; Will, Jack’s roommate, is Black; Sage is a white girl, Mr. Yang is Asian, and Ms. Ballent is white (Norbu’s race is up in the air, as he only appears as a blue hologram). Lexa’s fierce determination and indomitable spirit make her a compelling protagonist and narrator (“‘History is boring,’ I groan. ‘The future is what counts’”). Through her, middle-grade readers get a thought-provoking—and funny—introduction to issues such as the use and misuse of technology and the role of corporations in environmental crises.
A fast-paced and engaging introduction to SF and environmental activism.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781938447617
Page Count: 344
Publisher: Genius Cat Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre.
Ice princess Lina must navigate family and school in this early chapter read.
The family picnic is today. This is not a typical gathering, since Lina’s maternal relatives are a royal family of Windtamers who have power over the weather and live in castles floating on clouds. Lina herself is mixed race, with black hair and a tan complexion like her Asian-presenting mother’s; her Groundling father appears to be a white human. While making a grand entrance at the castle of her grandfather, the North Wind, she fails to successfully ride a gust of wind and crashes in front of her entire family. This prompts her stern grandfather to ask that Lina move in with him so he can teach her to control her powers. Desperate to avoid this, Lina and her friend Claudia, who is black, get Lina accepted at the Hilltop Science and Arts Academy. Lina’s parents allow her to go as long as she does lessons with grandpa on Saturdays. However, fitting in at a Groundling school is rough, especially when your powers start freak winter storms! With the story unfurling in diary format, bright-pink–highlighted grayscale illustrations help move the plot along. There are slight gaps in the storytelling and the pacing is occasionally uneven, but Lina is full of spunk and promotes self-acceptance.
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre. (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: June 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-35393-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
Just the thing for anyone with a Grinch-y tree of their own in the yard.
A grouchy sapling on a Christmas tree farm finds that there are better things than lights and decorations for its branches.
A Grinch among the other trees on the farm is determined never to become a sappy Christmas tree—and never to leave its spot. Its determination makes it so: It grows gnarled and twisted and needle-less. As time passes, the farm is swallowed by the suburbs. The neighborhood kids dare one another to climb the scary, grumpy-looking tree, and soon, they are using its branches for their imaginative play, the tree serving as a pirate ship, a fort, a spaceship, and a dragon. But in winter, the tree stands alone and feels bereft and lonely for the first time ever, and it can’t look away from the decorated tree inside the house next to its lot. When some parents threaten to cut the “horrible” tree down, the tree thinks, “Not now that my limbs are full of happy children,” showing how far it has come. Happily for the tree, the children won’t give up so easily, and though the tree never wished to become a Christmas tree, it’s perfectly content being a “trick or tree.” Martinez’s digital illustrations play up the humorous dichotomy between the happy, aspiring Christmas trees (and their shoppers) and the grumpy tree, and the diverse humans are satisfyingly expressive.
Just the thing for anyone with a Grinch-y tree of their own in the yard. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-7335-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
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