by Doug Wilson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 14, 2017
A well-paced series opener with plenty of action.
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In Wilson’s (The Young King, 2017, etc.) YA novel, a young teenager vacationing in Ireland discovers that he has a special destiny to fight evil.
British 13-year-old Peter Wanderer dreads having to spend two whole weeks of his vacation on an isolated Irish island, keeping his elderly aunt company after her recent widowhood. Although he’s prepared for a dull fortnight, dramatic events soon occur: Peter finds himself playing the fiddle better than ever before; three islanders go missing under mysterious circumstances; and there are local reports of pooka or perhaps dullaghans—evil, animal-shaped demons. Even stranger, two old men introduce themselves to Peter and his new acquaintance, a teenage local girl named Siobhan Kelly, as leprechauns and give the pair startling news: they’re both changelings from the “faery” world, and their special skills are desperately needed. Recent construction drilling has awakened Catharnach, an evil giant with many horrible followers, who’s only a representative of the much more fearsome Miasma of Evil. Both teenagers struggle to accept demanding realities—magical beings, changelings, time travel, reincarnation—and the tasks that await them: Peter must find and play a magic harp, and Siobhan must tap into her past life as a great Irish faery warrior in order to face Catharnach. They’ll have help in this endeavor, including from 16th-century pirate Grace O’Malley, but the bigger battle is only beginning. Author Wilson makes good use of Irish history, myth, and legend here to provide a different take on the typical fantasy-adventure plot about a teenager who discovers that he’s more special than he realized. (Siobhan, too, but this is mainly Peter’s story.) The Irish mythology–flavored heroes and villains are a nice change from the usual elves, orcs, dwarves, and such. The book offers engaging episodes of fighting and adventure interspersed with graceful exposition. Although Peter’s and Siobhan’s near-instant access to enormous talents sans long hours of practice offers pleasurable wish-fulfillment, it’s less satisfying than having them learn skills on their own. However, it helps to balance the scales, giving the two a chance to show their considerable courage. Future adventures follow in two published sequels.
A well-paced series opener with plenty of action.Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4990-9993-5
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Xlibris
Review Posted Online: Oct. 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Doug Wilson
by Katherena Vermette illustrated by Scott B. Henderson Donovan Yaciuk ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 15, 2018
A sparse, beautifully drawn story about a teen discovering her heritage.
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In this YA graphic novel, an alienated Métis girl learns about her people’s Canadian history.
Métis teenager Echo Desjardins finds herself living in a home away from her mother, attending a new school, and feeling completely lonely as a result. She daydreams in class and wanders the halls listening to a playlist of her mother’s old CDs. At home, she shuts herself up in her room. But when her history teacher begins to lecture about the Pemmican Wars of early 1800s Saskatchewan, Echo finds herself swept back to that time. She sees the Métis people following the bison with their mobile hunting camp, turning the animals’ meat into pemmican, which they sell to the Northwest Company in order to buy supplies for the winter. Echo meets a young girl named Marie, who introduces Echo to the rhythms of Métis life. She finally understands what her Métis heritage actually means. But the joys are short-lived, as conflicts between the Métis and their rivals in the Hudson Bay Company come to a bloody head. The tragic history of her people will help explain the difficulties of the Métis in Echo’s own time, including those of her mother and the teen herself. Accompanied by dazzling art by Henderson (A Blanket of Butterflies, 2017, etc.) and colorist Yaciuk (Fire Starters, 2016, etc.), this tale is a brilliant bit of time travel. Readers are swept back to 19th-century Saskatchewan as fully as Echo herself. Vermette’s (The Break, 2017, etc.) dialogue is sparse, offering a mostly visual, deeply contemplative juxtaposition of the present and the past. Echo’s eventual encounter with her mother (whose fate has been kept from readers up to that point) offers a powerful moment of connection that is both unexpected and affecting. “Are you…proud to be Métis?” Echo asks her, forcing her mother to admit, sheepishly: “I don’t really know much about it.” With this series opener, the author provides a bit more insight into what that means.
A sparse, beautifully drawn story about a teen discovering her heritage.Pub Date: March 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-55379-678-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: HighWater Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Katherena Vermette ; illustrated by Scott B. Henderson and Donovan Yaciuk
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by Katherena Vermette ; illustrated by Julie Flett
by Walter Dean Myers ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 31, 1999
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes...
In a riveting novel from Myers (At Her Majesty’s Request, 1999, etc.), a teenager who dreams of being a filmmaker writes the story of his trial for felony murder in the form of a movie script, with journal entries after each day’s action.
Steve is accused of being an accomplice in the robbery and murder of a drug store owner. As he goes through his trial, returning each night to a prison where most nights he can hear other inmates being beaten and raped, he reviews the events leading to this point in his life. Although Steve is eventually acquitted, Myers leaves it up to readers to decide for themselves on his protagonist’s guilt or innocence.
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes written entirely in dialogue alternate with thoughtful, introspective journal entries that offer a sense of Steve’s terror and confusion, and that deftly demonstrate Myers’s point: the road from innocence to trouble is comprised of small, almost invisible steps, each involving an experience in which a “positive moral decision” was not made. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: May 31, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-028077-8
Page Count: 280
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1999
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by Walter Dean Myers ; illustrated by Floyd Cooper
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by Walter Dean Myers ; adapted by Guy A. Sims ; illustrated by Dawud Anyabwile
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