A winning production.
The arrival of a big-budget film crew on Martha’s Vineyard prompts a group of young residents and visitors to make a movie of their own about a gruesome local legend.
A vivid sense of place and nuanced backstories enrich a summertime adventure that begins as a lark but takes on discomfiting twists on the way to a melodramatic climax. Dragged into the project by Elijah, cineaste son of a visiting journalist, 13-year-old Gayle and reclusive, bullied Madison settle on an old tale known as the Atwood Terror, about a wealthy fishing-club owner who supposedly fed victims to sharks for the amusement of his shady associates. To their surprise they discover not only that there might be something to the legend, but that locals seem oddly unwilling to share what they know. Persistence pays off, and Elijah’s fancy camera records clues from old maps and elsewhere that lead at last to startling revelations and narrow squeaks made all the more thrilling for being set amid isolated ruins during a wild storm—although the finished movie turns out to be very different from the one the three thought they were making. Meanwhile, eloquently chronicled in Marcks’ cinematic panels through silent gestures and expressions as much as speech, friendships are formed and repaired, parental relationships articulated, and inner conflicts expressed and resolved. Major characters present White; Elijah and his dad are brown-skinned.
A winning production. (map) (Graphic fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: May 11, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-316-46138-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
Readers will cheer her victories, wince at her stumbles, and likely demand visits to the nearest faire themselves to sample...
A home-schooled squireling sallies forth to public school, where the woods turn out to be treacherous and dragons lie in wait.
Imogene Vega has grown up among “faire-mily”; her brown-skinned dad is the resident evil knight at a seasonal Renaissance faire, her lighter-skinned mom is in charge of a gift shop, and other adult friends play various costumed roles. As a freshly minted “squire,” she happily charges into new weekend duties helping at jousts, practicing Elizabethan invective (“Thou lumpish reeling-ripe jolt-head!” “Thou loggerheaded rump-fed giglet!”), and keeping younger visitors entertained. But she loses her way when cast among crowds of strangers in sixth grade. Along with getting off on the wrong foot academically, she not only becomes a target of mockery after clumsy efforts to join a clique go humiliatingly awry, but alienates potential friends (and, later, loving parents and adoring little brother too). Amid stabs of regret she wonders whether she’s more dragon than knight. In her neatly drawn sequential panels, Newbery honoree Jamieson (Roller Girl, 2015) portrays a diverse cast of expressive, naturally posed figures occupying two equally immersive worlds. In the end Imogene wins the day in both, proving the mettle of her brave, decent heart in finding ways to make better choices and chivalric amends for her misdeeds.
Readers will cheer her victories, wince at her stumbles, and likely demand visits to the nearest faire themselves to sample the wares and fun. (Graphic fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-525-42998-2
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A thought-provoking title for sophisticated readers.
A missing boy returns from another world. Will anyone believe his story?
When 12-year-old Aidan goes missing, his family and community members search everywhere in their small town. Things progress from worrying to terrifying when Aidan doesn’t turn up. No note. No trace. Not even a body. Six days later, Aidan’s younger brother, Lucas, finds Aidan alive in the attic they’d searched many times before. Aidan claims he was in a magical world called Aveinieu and that he got there through a dresser. While everyone around the brothers searches for answers, Lucas gets Aidan to open up about Aveinieu. Lucas, who narrates the story, grapples with the impossibility of the situation as he pieces it all together. Is any part of Aidan’s story true? YA veteran Levithan’s first foray into middle grade is a poignant tale of brotherly love and family trauma. The introspective writing, funneled through a precocious narrator, is as much about what truth means as about what happened. Though an engaging read for the way it makes readers consider and reconsider the mystery, the slow burn may deter those craving tidy resolutions. Bookish readers, however, will delight in the homages to well-known books, including When You Reach Me and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The cast defaults to White; the matter-of-fact inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters is noteworthy.
A thought-provoking title for sophisticated readers. (Mystery/fantasy. 10-13)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-984848-59-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
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