In this orphan-makes-good mystery/thriller with a magical twist, Rose and her compatriots—an apprentice magician, a spoiled 7-year-old and a shape-shifting talking cat—work together to figure out who has been kidnapping local children and come up with a plan to rescue them.
At the tender age of 10, Rose, who has lived an impoverished and cloistered life in an orphanage, goes into service as the second housemaid at the home of renowned and wealthy magician and alchemist Mr. Aloysius Fountain. Rose, who had barely been outside the orphanage gates, slowly adjusts to her new circumstances, which are luxurious to her modest eyes. Rose’s growing knowledge of the world outside the orphanage, her own burgeoning and increasingly emphatic magical power, and her relationships with other members of the household turn out to be more engaging and suspenseful than the story’s mystery. The climactic battle, which features the power of hope, is talky, still explaining at a time readers should be enveloped in action. Still, Rose is sympathetic and a pleasure to root for, the secondary characters have room to grow, and the ending can be read as a new beginning, leaving plenty of room for a sequel.
Character and the day-to-day workings of a wealthy household overshadow magic and plot in this engaging tale of an orphan servant-girl. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-8581-3
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
Categories: CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A young tennis champion becomes the target of revenge.
In this sequel to Legacy and the Queen (2019), Legacy Petrin and her friends Javi and Pippa have returned to Legacy’s home province and the orphanage run by her father. With her friends’ help, she is in training to defend her championship when they discover that another player, operating under the protection of High Consul Silla, is presenting herself as Legacy. She is so convincing that the real Legacy is accused of being an imitation. False Legacy has become a hero to the masses, further strengthening Silla’s hold, and it becomes imperative to uncover and defeat her. If Legacy is to win again, she must play her imposter while disguised as someone else. Winning at tennis is not just about money and fame, but resisting Silla’s plans to send more young people into brutal mines with little hope of better lives. Legacy will have to overcome her fears and find the magic that allowed her to claim victory in the past. This story, with its elements of sports, fantasy, and social consciousness that highlight tensions between the powerful and those they prey upon, successfully continues the series conceived by late basketball superstar Bryant. As before, the tennis matches are depicted with pace and spirit. Legacy and Javi have brown skin; most other characters default to White.
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-949520-19-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Granity Studios
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
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BOOK REVIEW
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
Categories: CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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