The intriguing premise is undercut by hasty worldbuilding but shows promise nonetheless; perhaps the kinks will be worked...
A teenage orphan living in misery suddenly discovers his magical gifts while being thrust into an epic battle between good and evil…sound familiar?
In lonely Crosscaper Orphanage, the westernmost building in Ireland, 13-year-old Denizen Hardwick retreats into a world of fantasy books, believing that he is thoroughly unremarkable. Summoned by a mysterious aunt, the white lad quickly discovers an ancient war being waged by Knights against nefarious shadow creatures from another world, a war humans must not know exists. Denizen is given a choice: join his aunt’s order of Knights or return to life at the orphanage. The seams of the timeless ordinary-turned-extraordinary–schoolboy narrative poke through in Rudden’s debut, which alternates perspectives between chosen-one Denizen and his best friend, trapped in the orphanage as the shadow creatures lay siege. The best fantasy gradually constructs the rules of its magical world for the protagonists, but Rudden’s readers barely have time to bond with “ordinary” Denizen before he is off on adventures. As a result, he and the Knights never achieve the three-dimensionality necessary for readers to emotionally invest. While the book’s use of magic, which takes a physical toll on the body of the wielder, is one of its finer elements, ungainly metaphors occasionally distract from the narrative.
The intriguing premise is undercut by hasty worldbuilding but shows promise nonetheless; perhaps the kinks will be worked out in Volume 2. (Fantasy. 10-15)Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-553-52297-6
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel.
Sure signs that the creative wells are running dry at last, the Captain’s ninth, overstuffed outing both recycles a villain (see Book 4) and offers trendy anti-bullying wish fulfillment.
Not that there aren’t pranks and envelope-pushing quips aplenty. To start, in an alternate ending to the previous episode, Principal Krupp ends up in prison (“…a lot like being a student at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School, except that the prison had better funding”). There, he witnesses fellow inmate Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) escape in a giant Robo-Suit (later reduced to time-traveling trousers). The villain sets off after George and Harold, who are in juvie (“not much different from our old school…except that they have library books here.”). Cut to five years previous, in a prequel to the whole series. George and Harold link up in kindergarten to reduce a quartet of vicious bullies to giggling insanity with a relentless series of pranks involving shaving cream, spiders, effeminate spoof text messages and friendship bracelets. Pilkey tucks both topical jokes and bathroom humor into the cartoon art, and ups the narrative’s lexical ante with terms like “pharmaceuticals” and “theatrical flair.” Unfortunately, the bullies’ sad fates force Krupp to resign, so he’s not around to save the Earth from being destroyed later on by Talking Toilets and other invaders…
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-17534-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
Some readers may feel that the resolution comes a mite too easily, but most will enjoy the journey and be pleased when...
Two sisters make an unauthorized expedition to their former hometown and in the process bring together the two parts of their divided family.
Dooley packs plenty of emotion into this eventful road trip, which takes place over the course of less than 24 hours. Twelve-year-old Ophelia, nicknamed Fella, and her 16-year-old sister, Zoey Grace, aka Zany, are the daughters of a lesbian couple, Shannon and Lacy, who could not legally marry. The two white girls squabble and share memories as they travel from West Virginia to Asheville, North Carolina, where Zany is determined to scatter Mama Lacy’s ashes in accordance with her wishes. The year is 2004, before the Supreme Court decision on gay marriage, and the girls have been separated by hostile, antediluvian custodial laws. Fella’s present-tense narration paints pictures not just of the difficulties they face on the trip (a snowstorm, car trouble, and an unlikely thief among them), but also of their lives before Mama Lacy’s illness and of the ways that things have changed since then. Breathless and engaging, Fella’s distinctive voice is convincingly childlike. The conversations she has with her sister, as well as her insights about their relationship, likewise ring true. While the girls face serious issues, amusing details and the caring adults in their lives keep the tone relatively light.
Some readers may feel that the resolution comes a mite too easily, but most will enjoy the journey and be pleased when Fella’s family figures out how to come together in a new way . (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-16504-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 31, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
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