Inventive and exciting, with strong hints of more to follow.
Potent, otherworldly, evil magic seeks domination, feeding on terror and upheaval in a time of war, while a Jewish refugee must find a way to counter it with some good magic of his own.
In 1942, Isaac’s parents send him from Nazi-occupied Prague to Rookskill Castle in Scotland, where he meets magical children and some strange creatures who are using their skills to help Britain win the war, first met in The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle (2016). On his journey he finds hints that his long-held feeling of being different is true. Amazingly, before arriving at Rookskill, he meets his parents in another century and is given two artifacts, an eternity knot and a time-travel watch, never to be relinquished, that will inform and guide him in the quest for reaching his as-yet-unknown destiny. He and the magically talented friends he meets at Rookskill also face unimaginable dangers as the evils close in on their castle, before all is resolved. Well, maybe not everything. The fantasy worldbuilding is generally well constructed and consistent. Gaelic largely inspires the evil creatures’ names, and Fox informs readers, though not Isaac, of their motivations in occasional interstitial chapters. Episodes are detailed and fast-paced, each one moving the tale forward, and there are lots of unexpected twists, turns, and revelations. Isaac and his magical teammates—all evidently white—are steadfast, brave, earnest, and altogether engaging.
Inventive and exciting, with strong hints of more to follow. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-451-47869-6
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020
An outstanding new edition of this popular modern classic (Newbery Award, 1961), with an introduction by Zena Sutherland and...
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1990
ISBN: 0-395-53680-4
Page Count: -
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Ultimately more than a little full of itself, but well-stocked with big themes, inventively spun fairy-tale tropes, and...
Good has won every fairy-tale contest with Evil for centuries, but a dark sorcerer’s scheme to turn the tables comes to fruition in this ponderous closer.
Broadening conflict swirls around frenemies Agatha and Sophie as the latter joins rejuvenated School Master Rafal, who has dispatched an army of villains from Capt. Hook to various evil stepmothers to take stabs (literally) at changing the ends of their stories. Meanwhile, amid a general slaughter of dwarves and billy goats, Agatha and her rigid but educable true love, Tedros, flee for protection to the League of Thirteen. This turns out to be a company of geriatric versions of characters, from Hansel and Gretel (in wheelchairs) to fat and shrewish Cinderella, led by an enigmatic Merlin. As the tale moves slowly toward climactic battles and choices, Chainani further lightens the load by stuffing it with memes ranging from a magic ring that must be destroyed and a “maleficent” gown for Sophie to this oddly familiar line: “Of all the tales in all the kingdoms in all the Woods, you had to walk into mine.” Rafal’s plan turns out to be an attempt to prove that love can be twisted into an instrument of Evil. Though the proposition eventually founders on the twin rocks of true friendship and family ties, talk of “balance” in the aftermath at least promises to give Evil a fighting chance in future fairy tales. Bruno’s polished vignettes at each chapter’s head and elsewhere add sophisticated visual notes.
Ultimately more than a little full of itself, but well-stocked with big themes, inventively spun fairy-tale tropes, and flashes of hilarity. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: July 21, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-210495-3
Page Count: 672
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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