A richly detailed debut with a classic feel, full of grit, gore, and gilt.
When she tries to save her neck, a young girl learns there are dangers outside the dungeon too.
Brought to the Tower of London as a motherless baby, 12-year-old Moss hates her limited life and reviled role as the basket girl, carrying the heads of the newly decapitated after Pa beheads Henry VIII’s prisoners. She loves stories, like the one of the Riverwitch, but she rebels when she doubts her father’s tales of their ties to the tower. Seizing the first chance at freedom, Moss plunges right into the Thames and danger. She hobnobs with nobles, befriends a boot thief, and tangles with the supernatural spirit who tries to lure children beneath the icy surface. Hardstaff gambles with her blend of fiction and folklore and her compression of dates, but she excels with her depiction of Tudor England, offering lavish descriptions of clothing and food, a moderate amount of lower-class dialect, and a slew of stench and grime. Anne Boleyn comes off a bit too prescient and moralistic to be believed, but court politics get an arch appraisal. Unhampered by any real historical role yet propelled by the fairy-tale undercurrent, Moss shifts, rebellious adolescent, clever child, and fortuitous historical-fiction heroine by turn.
A richly detailed debut with a classic feel, full of grit, gore, and gilt. (Historical fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: April 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-60684-562-2
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
An intriguing series opener that explores emotional themes through a magical lens.
An American teen’s powers make her dangerous—to some, anyway.
Ever since the Great Outburst 10 years ago that killed Aria Loveridge’s mother, the world has known that dreamslingers are a threat. Fourteen-year-old Aria has learned to control her dreamslinger powers by keeping her emotions in check, demonstrating her father’s argument that those who share this genetic mutation might be dangerous but are “patients who [deserve] society’s care.” When the secretive Kingdom of Royal Hanguk, located on an island in Seoul, announces that its Annual Royal Slinger Trials will for the first time be open to teenagers from every nation, Aria, who’s cued Korean and white, agrees to participate. She’s on a secret assignment for the governor of Texas, who wants her to find out what threats Royal Hanguk might be planning to unleash on the world. But when she arrives, Aria finds a place that accepts dreamslingers, and she begins to make friends. As she learns about her abilities, she discovers more about her past and what it means to be a dreamslinger, secrets that tie her both to her father’s philosophies and to Royal Hanguk. As she becomes more invested in the training, Aria must decide where her loyalties lie. The worldbuilding is fun but contains emotional depth, and the perennially appealing magic school setting contains a healthy dash of familial and political drama. This deftly executed work successfully addresses serious coming-of-age themes with optimism.
An intriguing series opener that explores emotional themes through a magical lens. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: April 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781368104777
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
A superb historical thriller.
Thirteen-year-old Paolo Crivelli dreams of being a hero in Nazi-occupied Florence.
It’s a tricky business living in an occupied city. The Allies are advancing from the south, Paolo’s father is missing (thought to be fighting for the Partisans), and the Crivelli family is caught between the Nazi occupiers and the sometimes ruthless Partisans. This first novel by acclaimed children’s picture-book writer and illustrator Hughes expertly captures the tension in the Crivelli home, as Rosemary tries to raise her two children and keep them safe while covertly supporting the Partisan cause. Not so easy with a son like Paolo, who risks sneaking out at night on his bicycle, looking for his own way to be a hero for the cause. There are plenty of heroes here, as layers of resistance to the Nazis are carefully delineated—the obvious bold resistance of the Partisans in the countryside, Rosemary’s agreement to house escaped prisoners of war in her cellar, a lifesaving tip from the captain of the local military police and even a sympathetic member of the Gestapo who conveniently finds nothing when searching the Crivellis’ cellar. The townspeople, a dog and even Paolo’s bicycle play a role in the resistance movement, though the dangers and the realities of war are always tangible in this fine novel.
A superb historical thriller. (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: April 23, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6037-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2013
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