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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high...
Two parallel stories, one of a Syrian boy from Aleppo fleeing war, and another of a white American boy, son of a NATO contractor, dealing with the challenges of growing up, intersect at a house in Brussels.
Ahmed lost his father while crossing the Mediterranean. Alone and broke in Europe, he takes things into his own hands to get to safety but ends up having to hide in the basement of a residential house. After months of hiding, he is discovered by Max, a boy of similar age and parallel high integrity and courage, who is experiencing his own set of troubles learning a new language, moving to a new country, and being teased at school. In an unexpected turn of events, the two boys and their new friends Farah, a Muslim Belgian girl, and Oscar, a white Belgian boy, successfully scheme for Ahmed to go to school while he remains in hiding the rest of the time. What is at stake for Ahmed is immense, and so is the risk to everyone involved. Marsh invites art and history to motivate her protagonists, drawing parallels to gentiles who protected Jews fleeing Nazi terror and citing present-day political news. This well-crafted and suspenseful novel touches on the topics of refugees and immigrant integration, terrorism, Islam, Islamophobia, and the Syrian war with sensitivity and grace.
A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high values in the face of grave risk and succeed in drawing goodwill from others. (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-30757-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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