It’s a jumble, but one that’s made up of feel-good set pieces.
In this second sequel to the Newbery Honor–winning Savvy (2008), the Beaumont family’s unusual abilities turn inside out. Steep learning curves and near catastrophes ensue.
Just as the Beaumonts decide to take in ill-tempered Grandma Pat, who is showing worrisome signs of “Old-Timer’s disease” (i.e., Alzheimer’s), 13-year-old Gypsy’s new “savvy” to glimpse (but not alter, despite her best efforts) future scenes switches to an ability to stop time—for all the universe except, as it turns out, Pat and everyone else who shares her birthday. Likewise, her formerly perfect mother turns accident-prone, her once-invisible big brother now unpredictably bursts into all-too-visible flame, and little Tucker farts and turns into a giant when upset. Nonetheless, the Beaumonts hie off to Colorado to pick up Grandma Pat and then chase her through Denver when she wanders out into a snowstorm. Law does not write for readers who like logically consistent premises and orderly plots. Nevertheless, along with turning her increasingly self-confident protagonist’s fondness for spontaneous twirling into a thematic leitmotif, she salts the narrative with wonderfully silly words (“Sardoodledom”!) and the cast with (aside from a now-requisite bully) helpful, warmhearted allies.
It’s a jumble, but one that’s made up of feel-good set pieces. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3862-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
A sensitive, moving debut.
When 11-year-old Eric Harper begins caring for an injured unicorn, his life is changed by the choices he makes, the relationships he forms, and the secrets he uncovers.
Eric lives with his family on land that has belonged to Harpers for generations and shares a special bond with his grandmother. One day, Eric spies what he thinks is a white deer but quickly realizes is a white unicorn. Filled with the “most amazing feeling of comfort and happiness and excitement,” Eric follows the lame unicorn to the farmhouse his ailing grandmother recently sold to Dr. Brancusi, a veterinarian, and her daughter, Allegra. (All three characters appear to be white.) Dr. Brancusi senses Eric’s concern and asks him to help her treat the unicorn. Discovering the unicorn is pregnant with twins, Dr. Brancusi warns Eric they must keep her hidden until the babies are born and hires him to assist. Eric’s affinity to the unicorn deepens, and when she’s threatened and runs away, he frantically searches. In the end, although Eric experiences loss, he gains a special family connection. Despite the presence of supernatural creatures, Eric’s quiet, genuine, first-person voice tells a realistic story of family love and discovering one’s true self, the presence of the unicorn and other magical creatures adding just a touch of whimsy to a story about very real emotions, revealed in Green’s black-and-white illustrations.
A sensitive, moving debut. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: July 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-544-76112-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2017
However tried and true, the Harry Potter–esque elements and set pieces don’t keep this cumbersome coming-of-age tale afloat,...
Full-blown middle-volume-itis leaves this continuation of the tale of a teenage elf who has been genetically modified for so-far undisclosed purposes dead in the water.
As the page count burgeons, significant plot developments slow to a trickle. Thirteen-year-old Sophie manifests yet more magical powers while going head-to-head with hostile members of the Lost Cities Council and her own adoptive elvin father, Grady, over whether the clandestine Black Swan cabal, her apparent creators and (in the previous episode) kidnappers, are allies or enemies. Messenger tries to lighten the tone by dressing Sophie and her classmates at the Hogwarts-ian Foxfire Academy as mastodons for a silly opening ceremony and by having her care for an alicorn—a winged unicorn so magnificent that even its poop sparkles. It’s not enough; two sad memorial services, a trip to a dreary underground prison, a rash of adult characters succumbing to mental breakdowns and a frequently weepy protagonist who is increasingly shunned as “the girl who was taken” give the tale a soggy texture. Also, despite several cryptic clues and a late attack by hooded figures, neither the identity nor the agenda of the Black Swan comes closer to being revealed.
However tried and true, the Harry Potter–esque elements and set pieces don’t keep this cumbersome coming-of-age tale afloat, much less under way. (Fantasy 10-12)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4424-4596-3
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
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