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
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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