An engaging, if occasionally uneven, fantasy.
A middle school student discovers that his life is anything but average when he befriends new classmates in this novel.
Twelve-year-old Jake is surprised the day the new students at his school invite him to sit with them at lunch. He always considered himself just an average boy before he met Amanda, Darryl, and Tony, the “cool new kids.” Although they are his classmates, they seem older and more mature, especially Darryl with his facial hair. The next day, Jake skips school to see a movie with his new friends; but the outing takes an ominous turn when Tony and Darryl disappear from the theater. The search for their friends takes Jake and Amanda to a zoo, where she subdues an unruly spider monkey by shooting bolts of green lightning from her fingers. She finally discloses to Jake that she is a princess from a planet called Amagrandus. An evil prince named Badood will stop at nothing to rule the planet, and she needs Jake’s help to stop him. She also reveals that Jake has the ability to control time. They soon find themselves in a race to find their friends and save her planet. Blaze offers an energetic fantasy aimed at readers ages 9 to 12 that may appeal to fans of SF. But the promising premise is hindered in places by inconsistent development. The opening chapters effectively establish the surreal world the hero is about to enter when Darryl levitates Jake’s tray during lunch and the protagonist encounters a jaguar behind the school gym. Throughout the novel, the author demonstrates a knack for creating appealing and fast-paced action sequences, whether it’s the spider monkey misbehaving at the zoo or an inanimate Tyrannosaurus rex at a miniature golf course coming to life and going on the prowl. Amanda’s background as a princess is intriguing, but details about Amagrandus are relegated to a few fleeting mentions. The ending establishes the basis for a sequel, and it is possible Amanda’s planet will be a key setting in future installments.
An engaging, if occasionally uneven, fantasy.Pub Date: Dec. 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-73347-751-2
Page Count: 124
Publisher: Blaze Books for Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Feb. 13, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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