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THE RED ABALONE SHELL

From the Last Crystal Trilogy series , Vol. 2

An engrossing fantasy and a thoughtful coming-of-age tale.

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In Schoonmaker’s fantasy-series installment, a powerful dark-magic object is tied to the fate of a boy in World War I-era America.

This trilogy for middle-schoolers began in The Black Alabaster Box, (2018) set in 1856, in which the preteen Grace Willis is kidnapped by Hiram Swathmore from a wagon train bound for California. After she’s rescued by the mysterious Mr. Nichols, Grace became the chosen guardian of “the last crystal,” an ancient object of immense healing power that she must keep out of the hands of Celeste, a corrupt, once-immortal enchantress. By the end of the first book, Celeste’s efforts to retrieve the crystal had dire consequences for then-adult Grace, her husband, and two children. The second book skips 20 years (as the author explains in her preface) to the beginning of World War I, and centers on Grace’s 12-year-old son, James, who’s found on a church step in a rural Oklahoma town. He has only hazy memories of his family, and his only possessions are a rolled-up map and a red abalone shell. James is accompanied by Old Shep, a canine harbinger of fantastical elements to come. After the boy is adopted by a loving German-American farming couple, he becomes more relatable as he matures over the course of the book; his self-doubt, fears and anger, and his impulse to do the right thing ring true. His memories of his family’s shocking fate, and those responsible for it, flood back with the reappearance of Mr. Nichols, who takes James back to an odd pocket of time to visit his forgotten little sister in a village where she’s safe from the threat that destroyed their parents. He returns to the present to become the magic crystal’s next protector, dangerously drawing the attention of evil Celeste. The author effortlessly weaves together fantasy, history, and real-world dilemmas into a compelling narrative that touches on pacificism, the anti-German sentiment that arose in the United States during the First World War, an appearance by the infamous criminal Dalton Gang, and the return of the vicious brother-and-sister outlaw duo from the first book. A satisfying setup for the final installment of the trilogy hints at another player in the fate of the “Last Crystal,” and the significance of James’ map.

An engrossing fantasy and a thoughtful coming-of-age tale.

Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2018

ISBN: 978-0-9979607-8-5

Page Count: 294

Publisher: Auctus Publishers

Review Posted Online: May 16, 2020

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NURA AND THE IMMORTAL PALACE

An enthralling fantasy debut exploring exploitation by those in power.

Will 12-year-old Nura be able to outsmart the trickster jinn and save herself and her friends?

Nura lives in the fictional Pakistani town of Meerabagh, where she has worked mining mica to help support her family of five—her mother, herself, and her three younger siblings—since her father’s death. In the mines she has the company of her best friend, Faisal, who is teased by other kids for his stutter, and she enjoys small pleasures like splurging on gulab jamun. Although Maa wants Nura to stop working and attend school, she has no interest in classroom learning and hopes to save up to send her younger siblings to school instead so they can break the family’s cycle of poverty. Following a mining accident in which Faisal and others are lost in the rubble, Nura goes to the rescue. In her quest, she is plunged into the magical, glittering jinn realm, where nothing is as it seems. The author seamlessly weaves into the worldbuilding of the story commentary on real-life problems such as the ravages of child labor and systems that perpetuate inequities. An informative author’s note further explores present-day global cycles of oppression as well as the life-changing power of education. This action-packed story set in a Muslim community moves at a fast pace, with evocative writing that brings the fantasy world to life and lyrical imagery to describe emotions.

An enthralling fantasy debut exploring exploitation by those in power. (Fantasy. 8-12)

Pub Date: July 5, 2022

ISBN: 978-0-7595-5795-6

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022

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PENCILVANIA

A vibrant celebration of art’s power to console and heal.

Zora, 12, shares her mother’s artistic gifts, but when grief and guilt lead her to destroy years of drawings, the results are astonishing.

Voom is Zora and her mom’s word for the artistic impulse that bubbles up inside. After disclosing her leukemia diagnosis to Zora and her sister, Frankie, Mom promised the girls she’d beat it. Ten months later, their far sicker mom is hospitalized in Pittsburgh, where the girls share their bus driver grandmother’s basement apartment. Mom continues to be optimistic and avoid acknowledging the possibility of death. Frustrated and needing to hear a realistic prognosis, Zora uses her art to show her mother the truth of how ill she looks. Later that night her mom dies—and Zora’s Voom goes away. When Grandma Wren disappoints Frankie on her seventh birthday, Zora’s guilt-fueled anger erupts. Over Frankie’s protests, Zora scribbles out her drawings until the scribbles fight back, pulling the girls into Pencilvania, a world where each of Zora’s creations lives. Most of her now-animated drawings welcome her—except for one scribbled-out horse who kidnaps Frankie. Guided by a seven-legged horse, the Zoracle (a composite of her early self-portraits), and other charming creations, Zora sets out to rescue Frankie and rediscover the wellspring of creativity that forms her mother’s legacy. Presumed White, the humans are well rounded and believable. Pencilvania’s inhabitants, conceived with humorous, metafictional whimsy, are enlivened with copious, inventive illustrations.

A vibrant celebration of art’s power to console and heal. (Fiction. 8-12)

Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-72821-590-7

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Sourcebooks Young Readers

Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021

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