Here’s hoping the next book offers more nuanced characters and a less calculable plot.
Caw and his friends return in this sequel to Ferals (2015).
Exploring his parents’ old house, Caw, a white boy and crow feral (a person who can communicate with and control a certain kind of animal), finds a pale-skinned squatter named Selina. Though he wants to welcome her, Caw hesitates, a decision that turns out to be fortuitous. Outside the house, Caw’s accosted by an old man who gives him a mysterious stone that belonged to Caw’s mother. Caw eventually notices that touching the stone makes him feel bad, but it isn’t until near the end of the book that he fully comprehends its abilities. Third-person narration unveils a plot similar in its predictability to the first book, within which good characters are good and evil characters are evil. The book’s villain, the Mother of Flies, is forever ranting about the other ferals not respecting fly ferals, which does give her a glimmer of dimensionality, but it’s not enough to paint her as anything more than heartless. And though characters vacillate about whether Selina—who turns out to be connected to the Mother of Flies—is evil, she’s always merely a pawn with a good heart. The end finds Caw triumphant, at least temporarily—a tidy setup for a third installment.
Here’s hoping the next book offers more nuanced characters and a less calculable plot. (Urban fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: April 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-232106-0
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
This hopeful adventure leaves an indelible mark.
A rare disorder elicits fear in a young Black artist with a unique sense of the world.
Seventh grader Etta’s Quiet Days are becoming more frequent and, frankly, irritating since her “maybe-diagnosis” of Ménière’s disease in both her ears. Her parents are monitoring her diet, vigilant about stressors, and learning ASL. In contrast to Etta’s Loud Days, not being able to hear sometimes makes it easier to focus on her comic book about Invincible Girl (the novel includes some enticing panels featuring Etta’s work). But, as peculiar weather patterns begin to overwhelm her Chicago neighborhood and exacerbate her allergies, the corresponding tinnitus and vertigo as well as the increased anxiety from everyone around her leave Etta feeling hopeless. Even meeting Eleazar, an artsy new Colombian friend with an adorable goldendoodle, leads to doubts about her abilities to communicate—Eleazar is also still learning English—and her future with Ménière’s. When Eleazar’s dog gets lost on a magical train that is linked to the weird weather, the two must traverse the train cars, solve mysteries, and overcome their fears to fix what’s broken and heal what can’t be fixed. Just like the magical challenges, their journey yields great emotional rewards. Even as Etta and Eleazar make new connections, losses—of family, hearing, and home—are somber reminders of life’s challenges. With snappy narration that’s rich in sensory detail and metaphor, readers progress through well-paced storytelling that is ethereal and artfully inclusive.
This hopeful adventure leaves an indelible mark. (Fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6837-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
It’s great to see these kids “so enthusiastic about committing high treason.” (historical note) (Historical fiction. 10-12)
Near the end of World War II, two kids join their parents in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler.
Max, 12, lives with his parents and his older sister in a Berlin that’s under constant air bombardment. During one such raid, a mortally wounded man stumbles into the white German family’s home and gasps out his last wish: “The Führer must die.” With this nighttime visitation, Max and Gerta discover their parents have been part of a resistance cell, and the siblings want in. They meet a colorful band of upper-class types who seem almost too whimsical to be serious. Despite her charming levity, Prussian aristocrat and cell leader Frau Becker is grimly aware of the stakes. She enlists Max and Gerta as couriers who sneak forged identification papers to Jews in hiding. Max and Gerta are merely (and realistically) cogs in the adults’ plans, but there’s plenty of room for their own heroism. They escape capture, rescue each other when they’re caught out during an air raid, and willingly put themselves repeatedly at risk to catch a spy. The fictional plotters—based on a mix of several real anti-Hitler resistance cells—are portrayed with a genuine humor, giving them the space to feel alive even in such a slim volume.
It’s great to see these kids “so enthusiastic about committing high treason.” (historical note) (Historical fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-35902-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
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