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 strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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