Adult fans will find neither gore nor sex, but kids will find an evocative original fairy tale with an unexpectedly complex...
In a clear attempt to capitalize on the wild popularity of the HBO series Game of Thrones,Martin’s 1980 novella sees a second repackaging with new illustrations by Royo, replacing the 2006 edition illustrated by Yvonne Gilbert.
No alterations have been made to the story, aside from setting it all in blue type. Adara, a motherless “winter child,” loves the ice dragon that visits her every year. A cold, contained little girl, Adara keeps to herself, her grieving father and older siblings just as happy to be too busy for her. She gives all the emotion she withholds from her family to the ice dragon, first touching it at age 4 and riding it at 5, all in secret. As this is the world of Game of Thrones, war is being waged all around, though Adara’s remote northern country remains largely untouched, save for the annual visits by her uncle, who rides a fire dragon for the king. But the war eventually comes to them the year she turns 7, when the enemy’s dragonriders overpower the king’s and begin to burn everything in sight—till Adara and her ice dragon fly. Like the type, Royo’s lush ink-and-wash illustrations are all set in blue, heightening the icy feel. They sprawl across spreads, complementing the generously leaded text and providing ample resting place for readers’ eyes. Despite the war and destruction, this is very much a children’s story, told in a distantly folkloric tone that evokes the stylings of Jane Yolen.
Adult fans will find neither gore nor sex, but kids will find an evocative original fairy tale with an unexpectedly complex protagonist . (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7653-7877-4
Page Count: 130
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Though the logistics of Jenni’s time travel are a bit convoluted and the characters often feel disappointingly flat, preteen...
Time travel to a disturbing near future forces a preteen to cope for the first time without the help of her best friend.
Twelve-year-old Jenni Green and her best friend Autumn are inseparable. Along with their families, they even spend their summer vacations together every year at Riverside Village. There’s so much to do there, from hot air balloon rides to adventure parks. Though Jenni naturally prefers museums to rock climbing, Autumn is always roping her into one crazy activity or another. This summer doesn’t seem any different, until a ride in an old elevator lands Jenni in the middle of a strange and unsettling time-travel adventure all on her own. For the first time in her friendship with Autumn, Jenni must take the reins and figure out how to change the past in order to protect the ones she loves in the future. Jenni's first-person narration gives readers a ringside seat to her disorientation. Will she be able to save her friendship with Autumn and spare both of their families the heartache of a looming tragedy? Only time will tell.
Though the logistics of Jenni’s time travel are a bit convoluted and the characters often feel disappointingly flat, preteen readers will likely be swept up in the suspense of Jenni’s journeys back and forth in time. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5595-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Aug. 23, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Action and enthusiasm aplenty, but, like most time-travel tales, not much for internal logic.
A Back to the Future–style romp through time, though with more loose ends than a bowl of spaghetti.
Hardly have teen twins Kyle and Emma and their younger brother (and narrator) Max arrived for a stay at their reclusive grandfather’s Texas ranch than the old man announces that he’s about to have a massive heart attack, shows them a working time machine in the basement and sends them out to a nearby paleontological site where they find fossilized sneaker prints among the dinosaur tracks. Then a stranger grabs Emma and vanishes in a flash of light—leaving the remaining sibs and a ranch hand’s bow-wielding daughter Petra to zoom in a Volkswagen Beetle back 70 million–plus years to the rescue. Not only does the late Cretaceous landscape turn out to be well stocked with crocodilian Deinosuchus and other toothy predators, a human gent falsely (as it turns out) claiming to be a refugee from 1919 steps out of the bushes to guide the others to the evidently dino-proof frame house in which Emma is being held. Everyone steams back to the present on the kidnapper’s motor launch, which is also fitted out as a time machine. Showing blithe disregard for potential paradoxes, the author sheds enough light on his byzantine back story to ensure that the protagonists will be taking more trips through time and closes with notes on dinosaurs and on the history of “Robinsonades.”
Action and enthusiasm aplenty, but, like most time-travel tales, not much for internal logic. (recommended reading) (Science fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: March 20, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-547-60849-5
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2011
© 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.
