Old magic breaks loose in modern London to rescue a kidnapped prince in this droll, if formulaic, farce from Ibbotson. When wealthy Larina Trottle decides she wants a child, she snatches the first baby that comes along, leaving distraught royal parents on the other side of an ancient gate (Platform 13, in an old Tube station) that opens once every nine years. Nine years later, through the gate comes a rescue party: an invisible giant, a very old wizard, a fairy, and a young hag-in-training, Odge Gribble. But Raymond Trottle is a fat, selfish, greedy, stupid, thoroughly spoiled child. Reluctantly, with the help of the Trottles' thoroughly likable kitchen boy Ben, the rescuers set about their task, without reckoning just how difficult crafty Larina is going to make it. Ibbotson strews her tale with magic creatures and stock villains, including bodyguard/assassin ``Soft Parts'' Doreen, armed with deadly knitting needles, a terrible lake monster who gives a delicious new meaning to the term ``clear skin,'' and a band of harpies, horrible to behold in pearls, tight perms, and stretch tops. At the very last moment comes the revelation that Ben, not Raymond, is the true prince, and Odge engineers the happy reunion. With scrawled, comic black- and-white drawings by Porter, it's not exactly Roald Dahl, but Ibbotson is at least a distant cousin. (Fiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: March 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-525-45929-4
Page Count: 231
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1998
A prolific reporter of paranormal phenomena strains to bring that same sense of wonder to 12 “transposed”—that is, paraphrased from interviews but related in first person—accounts of extraordinary experiences. Some feats are more memorable than others; compared to Bethany Hamilton’s return to competitive surfing after having her arm bitten off by a shark and Mark Inglis’ climb to the top of Mount Everest on two prosthetic legs, Joe Hurley’s nine-month walk from Cape Cod to Long Beach, Calif., is anticlimactic. Dean Karnazes hardly seems to be exerting himself as he runs 50 marathons on 50 consecutive days, and the comments of an Air Force Thunderbirds pilot and a military Surgeon’s Assistant in Iraq come off as carefully bland. The survivors of a hurricane at sea, a lightning strike and a tornado, on the other hand, tell more compelling stories. Most of the color photos are at least marginally relevant, and each entry closes with a short note on its subject’s subsequent activities. Casual browsers will be drawn to at least some of the reconstructed narratives in this uneven collection. A reading list would have been more useful than the superfluous index, though. Fun, in a scattershot sort of way. (Nonfiction browsing item. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4027-6711-1
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2011
Ghostwritten for a fictional 13-year-old character on the ABC Family network show Secret Life of the American Teenager, this September-to-August journal recaps the first season and part of the second—from 15-year-old sister Amy’s revelation that she’s pregnant through her parents’ divorce and the news that her mother herself is expecting. In the snarky tone she generally takes onscreen, narrator Ashley relates events from her own point of view and elaborates on them in long, wordy entries replete with adolescent self-assurance. Of a run-in with the school principal, for instance: “I think the real reason I got into trouble was because I expressed my individuality. It tends to scare authority figures when someone my age does that.” This “enhanced” e-book includes 10 brief video clips embedded in the general vicinity of their relevant passages. There is also a closing page of links to expedite the posting of reader ratings and reviews. Aside from a pair of footnotes pushed to a screen at the end, far away from their original contexts, the translation to digital format works seamlessly for reading/viewing in either single-page/portrait or double-page/landscape orientation. There’s enough standard-issue teen and domestic drama here to keep fans of such fare reading, but devotees of the show may be disappointed at the lack of significant new content, either in the narrative itself or in the e-book’s media features. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: June 22, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4013-9596-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2011
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