Young readers will likely appreciate the twists, turns and touches of humor in this episodic adventure tale.
Mitchell’s middle-grade fantasy novel offers a little bit of everything, including intergalactic travel, talking animals, an evil witch and swashbuckling pirates.
When the evil sorceress Zerolan invades the peaceful kingdom of Harmonicas, Princess Alanna makes a daring escape and sends her pet owl, Twig, off into the unknown to find help. Twig ends up on Earth, where he meets three boys on a camping trip and takes them back with him to help rescue Harmonicas from Zerolan’s clutches. The boys team up with the princess and pick up a few more helpers along the way. Together, they use magic, cunning and some luck to defeat their foes as they travel across the land by owl, kayak and hot air balloon. The book is suited to young readers; although there are hints of developing romances, they go no farther than some hand-holding and a peck on the cheek. Older teens and adults may sometimes have difficulty suspending their disbelief; for example, they may question the fact that the residents of Harmonicas speak English but have their own words for terms of measurement, as noted in ongoing parenthetical asides: “I'm afraid you are yulhydrons (billions) of space-likets (light-years) away from your planet.” There are a few violent scenes that may be too much for very young readers: “The sword sliced through their midsections like a knife cuts through jelly.” Also, although the boys from Earth are described as modern-day teens, they tend to talk in a hokey, old-fashioned way, using phrases such as “jumpin’ jackfish” and “[m]y Dad’s going to tan my hide.” By the novel’s end, the three boys make it back to Earth, but they aren’t alone: Friends and foes from Harmonicas have joined them, setting the stage for a possible sequel.
Young readers will likely appreciate the twists, turns and touches of humor in this episodic adventure tale.Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2013
ISBN: 978-1489594433
Page Count: 328
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 7, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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