Radiant characters electrify a witty and topical SF romp.
A girl body-shamed by her peers becomes a fashion star on a faraway planet in Hamid’s debut middle-grade novel.
While at a shop in her Massachusetts hometown, Katarina Habib ducks out of sight from school bullies. The seventh grader hides in a storeroom full of clothing—which a spider-like alien transports to her spaceship, taking Kat along for the ride. Extraterrestrial fashion designer Madam Xanis simply wants inspiration for her new collection; she declares the Earthling girl she’s inadvertently picked up as her muse. Back home, cruel schoolmates call Kat “Fatty Katty,” but Xanis, and members of many other galactic species, find her to be beautiful. She can help Xanis win the Path of Glory, a fashion competition on planet T’kai that Xanis has won four times (though she’s come up short lately). This puts the generally insecure Kat in the bright spotlight as she does interviews, poses for promotional “clicks,” and stays mum about her home world (since Earth is a “banned” planet). Xanis, meanwhile, has a mere two weeks to complete 10 showstopping outfits. Hamid takes the affable protagonist on a lighthearted interplanetary adventure as Xanis finds a clever way to cover Kat’s absence on Earth and the human girl mingles with an array of relatively harmless aliens. The assorted species are a highlight, from beings with segmented bodies to a “Jello creature” to entities who prefer to slither into a room. As for the question of beauty standards: The various species, while finding allure in all sorts, have a particular fondness for multi-eyed, eight-legged T’kari like Xania. The story’s more grounded elements prove just as engaging—the aliens’ “entertainment grid” is akin to social media, allowing Kat to post personal “clicks” and present the “real” version of herself. The final act, which entails vying for the Path of Glory championship and Kat’s probable return to Earth, leads to a genuinely rewarding end.
Radiant characters electrify a witty and topical SF romp.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9798991522618
Page Count: 291
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.
In Florence’s middle-grade fantasy novel, a young girl’s heart is tested in the face of an evil, spreading Darkness.
Eleven-year-old Lydia, “freckle-cheeked and round-eyed, with hair the color of pine bark and fair skin,” is struggling with the knowledge that she has reached the age to apprentice as an herbalist. Lydia is reluctant to leave her beloved, magical Mulberry Glen and her cozy Housetree in the woods—she’ll miss Garder, the Glen’s respected philosopher; her fairy guardian Pit; her human friend Livy; and even the mischievous part-elf, part-imp, part-human twins Zale and Zamilla. But the twins go missing after hearing of a soul-sapping Darkness that has swallowed a forest and is creeping into minds and engulfing entire towns. They have secretly left to find a rare fruit that, it is said, will stop the Darkness if thrown into the heart of the mountain that rises out of the lethal forest. Lydia follows, determined to find the twins before they, too, fall victim to the Darkness. During her journey, accompanied by new friends, she gradually realizes that she herself has a dangerous role to play in the quest to stop the Darkness. In this well-crafted fantasy, Florence skillfully equates the physical manifestation of Darkness with the feelings of insecurity and powerlessness that Lydia first struggles with when thinking of leaving the Glen. Such negative thoughts grow more intrusive the closer she and her friends come to the Darkness—and to Lydia’s ultimate, powerfully rendered test of character, which leads to a satisfyingly realistic, not quite happily-ever-after ending. Highlights include a delightfully haunting, reality-shifting library and a deft sprinkling of Latin throughout the text; Pit’s pet name for Lydia is mea flosculus (“my little flower”). Fine-lined ink drawings introducing each chapter add a pleasing visual element to this well-grounded fairy tale.
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781956393095
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Waxwing Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship.
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 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
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