A well-crafted mix of fact and fantasy filled with surprises and grounded in history and real-world dilemmas.
A young girl’s pioneering trek to the American West is interrupted by danger, tragedy, and a magical quest in the first book in Schoonmaker’s Last Crystal trilogy for middle schoolers.
In mid-19th-century Missouri, the white Willis family is about to follow the Santa Fe Trail to the new state of California. Miserable over leaving home, preteen Grace Willis is distracted by the sudden arrival of Old Shep, a dog from her early childhood. Absent for 10 years, Old Shep looks remarkably fit for a canine of more than 100 dog years. It’s a mystery—or is it magic? Old Shep’s role in Grace’s life is woven into a surprise-filled, absorbing narrative, the first novel in a series that begins with this vivid depiction of life for a pioneer family heading west. The author is a former professor and elementary school teacher, but this is no textbook adventure. Nor is it Little House on the Prairie redux. The fact that wagon train scout Jim Payne, a free black man, teaches Grace tracking and track-covering skills hints that the girl will need them, and she does. Grace is kidnapped and suffers a horrific loss. Her ordeal with the brutal kidnapper and his family is genuinely unsettling; her grueling escape is downright chilling. Fleeing pursuit, aided by Old Shep, Grace is rescued by mysterious Mr. Nichols. And here the narrative slides smoothly and enjoyably into a full-fledged fantasy involving Mr. Nichols’ identity and an object hidden within an alabaster cavern. Locked away, the object has the power to heal humankind’s woes, but it is guarded by a lethal spell. If Grace can find the strength, she must retrieve and guard the object until the spell can be lifted. The eventful passage of time that follows—featuring, in part, two vicious outlaws from Grace’s past, the mysterious disappearance and reappearance of Mr. Nichols and Old Shep, and a new home for the bespelled object—will have readers eager for the next book in this series.
A well-crafted mix of fact and fantasy filled with surprises and grounded in history and real-world dilemmas.Pub Date: March 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9979607-5-4
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Auctus Publishers
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Triumphs, mishaps, and revelations kick this adventure into high gear.
Two young superheroes start a search for their missing mom at a summer camp built next to a volcano. What could go wrong?
Enlisting their friends Beto Moreno and Nara Jenkins—respectively, an aspiring magician and a medal-winning wrestler—to help, fledgling secret super sibs Adeline and Wyatt Flynn enroll at Camp Igneous, conveniently situated at the base of the volcano where their mom might have disappeared four years before. Along with pursuing an investigation, though, the team faces serious competition vying for the titular cup in a series of mentally and physically demanding obstacle courses and other challenges, all while keeping their special powers hidden. The art’s bright colors, overlapping panels, and expressively posed cartoon figures ramp up the pacing and visual energy for a plot that features a series of suspenseful contests capped by encounters with “radioactive goop” and other surprises in the volcano’s crater and hints of a connection between the missing parent and a clandestine group of bad actors called the Quadrant. Stay tuned. Gapstur builds preteen banter, team building, frustrated romance, and even a nearly catastrophic eruption that tests the superkids’ abilities to the utmost into this lively sequel. Wyatt and Adeline are White; the supporting cast includes racial diversity.
Triumphs, mishaps, and revelations kick this adventure into high gear. (Graphic adventure. 8-12)Pub Date: July 18, 2023
ISBN: 9781534480322
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Atmospheric but at times frustratingly flat.
A recent transplant wrestles with her seaside town’s complicated and ghostly history.
Twelve-year-old Mallory Denton has moved from Chicago to a tiny New England town. Eastport, Massachusetts, is a popular tourist destination, relying on its long and spooky history to keep its economy thriving. Its attractions include Mallory’s parents’ creepily themed restaurant that abuts a cemetery. Sweet Molly’s is Eastport’s most famous story, commemorated as the chief attraction in an annual parade. The legend tells of the time Molly Flanders McMulligan Marshall lost her twin brother, Liam, at sea when the townspeople pressured him to go out in his fishing boat even as a dangerous storm approached. After Mallory begins to see Molly in visions and nightmares, she must find a way to break Molly’s curse on the town before the vengeful ghost can exact her furious otherworldly revenge on the town that monetizes and celebrates her trauma. In tense, fast-paced chapters, Currie concocts a chilling setting replete with haunting spectral scares set in a town with an accessible but intriguingly complicated history. However, the thrills ultimately fizzle, as much is told rather than shown and pivotal plot points are revealed too soon and resolved too quickly and tidily. While some scenes are chillingly rendered, they lose their panache when juxtaposed against moments of cloying predictability. Most characters read as White.
Atmospheric but at times frustratingly flat. (Horror. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-72823-654-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Sourcebooks Young Readers
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
