An insecure young witch comes into her own in this pleasantly old-fashioned fantasy debut.
Arianwyn Gribble desperately wants to serve in the Civil Witchcraft Authority. But after blowing up the testing device at her official evaluation, she is granted only a remote assignment with provisional certification as an “apprentice witch.” Soon Arianwyn discovers that even sleepy little villages can harbor terrifying challenges. This world feels like an alternative mid-20th-century England, where everyone is default white and, despite the (apparently) exclusively female CWA, traditional gender roles hold firm. The story has a similar vintage vibe. The “glyph”-based magical system is coherent and consistent (if not particularly original), with little impact on ordinary life. Arianwyn is quite likable: brave, kind, and competent despite her almost crippling lack of self-confidence. While apparently old enough to live on her own and hold a responsible position, she reads as barely adolescent, providing all the more satisfaction as she gradually builds faith in her own abilities and wins the respect of the townsfolk. The remaining characters are simple stock types, nonetheless comforting in their familiarity. The narrative comes to a solid conclusion but with sufficient hints of a wider world—and deeper magic—to justify further adventures.
Not every fantasy has to be epic, grimdark, or startlingly new; this one is as cozy as a teapot and as comfy as old slippers. (Fantasy. 11-16)Pub Date: July 25, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-338-11858-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Chicken House/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2017
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The dreary prospect of spending a lifetime making caskets instead of wonderful inventions prompts a young orphan to snatch up his little sister and flee. Where? To the circus, of course.
Fortunately or otherwise, John and 6-year-old Page join up with Boz—sometime human cannonball for the seedy Wandering Wayfarers and a “vertically challenged” trickster with a fantastic gift for sowing chaos. Alas, the budding engineer barely has time to settle in to begin work on an experimental circus wagon powered by chicken poop and dubbed (with questionable forethought) the Autopsy. The hot pursuit of malign and indomitable Great-Aunt Beauregard, the Coggins’ only living relative, forces all three to leave the troupe for further flights and misadventures. Teele spins her adventure around a sturdy protagonist whose love for his little sister is matched only by his fierce desire for something better in life for them both and tucks in an outstanding supporting cast featuring several notably strong-minded, independent women (Page, whose glare “would kill spiders dead,” not least among them). Better yet, in Boz she has created a scene-stealing force of nature, a free spirit who’s never happier than when he’s stirring up mischief. A climactic clutch culminating in a magnificently destructive display of fireworks leaves the Coggin sibs well-positioned for bright futures. (Illustrations not seen.)
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish. (Adventure. 11-13)Pub Date: April 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234510-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
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A must-read guide for all queer and questioning Christians (and their allies, too)!
Queer youth still face a multitude of challenges while growing up, and these have the potential to be amplified by religious beliefs. Addressing that issue head-on, this guide for Christians seeks to provide counsel, understanding, and gentle guidance across a series of 40-plus chapters that address everything from coming out in a variety of contexts, positive ways to deal with haters, and helping start the conversation about gender-neutral bathrooms at school, to living authentically. The book acknowledges that the advice is sometimes vague, but that’s because the spectrum of queer life is so broad. In this regard, the book excels by speaking to a range of genders and sexual identities; asexuals, nonbinary people, bisexuals, pansexuals, etc., are all addressed with respect and will find useful tips for navigating their early years. The book works better for hunt-and-peck readers as opposed to those reading from cover to cover because some of the information is repetitious, but that repetition may be necessary to counterbalance years of incorrect, inaccurate, or purposely hateful misinformation. The contributors to this fabulous read include mental health experts and religious leaders. Text boxes, pie charts, graphs, and grayscale illustrations support and enhance the main narrative.
A must-have book for libraries, schools, and churches. (note on language, glossary, additional resources, sources) (Self-help. 12-18)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2020
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Beaming Books
Review Posted Online: June 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
Categories: TEEN SOCIAL THEMES | TEEN NONFICTION
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This sequel to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (1998) brings back the doughty young wizard-in-training to face suspicious adults, hostile classmates, fretful ghosts, rambunctious spells, giant spiders, and even an avatar of Lord Voldemort, the evil sorcerer who killed his parents, while saving the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from a deadly, mysterious menace.
Ignoring a most peculiar warning, Harry kicks off his second year at Hogwarts after a dreadful summer with his hateful guardians, the Dursleys, and is instantly cast into a whirlwind of magical pranks and misadventures, culminating in a visit to the hidden cavern where his friend Ron's little sister Ginny lies, barely alive, in a trap set by his worst enemy. Surrounded by a grand mix of wise and inept faculty, sneering or loyal peers—plus an array of supernatural creatures including Nearly Headless Nick and a huge, serpentine basilisk—Harry steadily rises to every challenge, and though he plays but one match of the gloriously chaotic field game Quidditch, he does get in plenty of magic and a bit of swordplay on his way to becoming a hero again.
Readers will be irresistibly drawn into Harry's world by GrandPre's comic illustrations and Rowling's expert combination of broad boarding school farce and high fantasy. (Fiction. 11-14)Pub Date: June 2, 1999
ISBN: 0-439-06486-4
Page Count: 341
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1999
Categories: CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY
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