Everybody’s middle school years should be as ultimately satisfying as Roan’s, whether they are Jedis-in-training or not.
Perhaps playing off the principle that a great ending will mitigate almost anything, this story has at least a dozen endings, and all of them are pretty spectacular.
It ends with a kiss, of course. The third graphic novel in the Jedi Academy series turns out to be a love story, although it takes the characters a while to realize it. At the beginning of the school year, Roan is still in denial, muttering, “Well, sort of. I don’t know if she’s my GIRLFRIEND exactly.” (It doesn’t help that other students call Gaiana and Roan “Groan.”) But by the close of this high jinks–filled year, every student at the academy gets a satisfying ending, even the bullies and troublemakers. Their End-of-the-Year Awards tell us how much they’ve changed, or failed to change. The honors include “Cuddliest,” “Future Sith Lord,” and “Most Surprising.” Roan, who’s training to be a pilot, is “Highest Flying.” It’s worth noting that this book has some of the best jokes in the series (the terrible school cook says, “Meat is vegetables, right?”) and a few of the worst (an assigned book is called Charlie and the Droid Factory). Roan gets the best ending of all. It’s a small panel that shows him looking out into space, thinking about home—or maybe adventures in a galaxy far, far away.
Everybody’s middle school years should be as ultimately satisfying as Roan’s, whether they are Jedis-in-training or not. (Graphic fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: July 28, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-545-62126-7
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An enthralling fantasy debut exploring exploitation by those in power.
Will 12-year-old Nura be able to outsmart the trickster jinn and save herself and her friends?
Nura lives in the fictional Pakistani town of Meerabagh, where she has worked mining mica to help support her family of five—her mother, herself, and her three younger siblings—since her father’s death. In the mines she has the company of her best friend, Faisal, who is teased by other kids for his stutter, and she enjoys small pleasures like splurging on gulab jamun. Although Maa wants Nura to stop working and attend school, she has no interest in classroom learning and hopes to save up to send her younger siblings to school instead so they can break the family’s cycle of poverty. Following a mining accident in which Faisal and others are lost in the rubble, Nura goes to the rescue. In her quest, she is plunged into the magical, glittering jinn realm, where nothing is as it seems. The author seamlessly weaves into the worldbuilding of the story commentary on real-life problems such as the ravages of child labor and systems that perpetuate inequities. An informative author’s note further explores present-day global cycles of oppression as well as the life-changing power of education. This action-packed story set in a Muslim community moves at a fast pace, with evocative writing that brings the fantasy world to life and lyrical imagery to describe emotions.
An enthralling fantasy debut exploring exploitation by those in power. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: July 5, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5795-6
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A sympathetic, compelling introduction to wolves from the perspective of one wolf and his memorable journey.
Separated from his pack, Swift, a young wolf, embarks on a perilous search for a new home.
Swift’s mother impresses on him early that his “pack belongs to the mountains and the mountains belong to the pack.” His father teaches him to hunt elk, avoid skunks and porcupines, revere the life that gives them life, and “carry on” when their pack is devastated in an attack by enemy wolves. Alone and grieving, Swift reluctantly leaves his mountain home. Crossing into unfamiliar territory, he’s injured and nearly dies, but the need to run, hunt, and live drives him on. Following a routine of “walk-trot-eat-rest,” Swift traverses prairies, canyons, and deserts, encountering men with rifles, hunger, thirst, highways, wild horses, a cougar, and a forest fire. Never imagining the “world could be so big or that I could be so alone in it,” Swift renames himself Wander as he reaches new mountains and finds a new home. Rife with details of the myriad scents, sounds, tastes, touches, and sights in Swift/Wander’s primal existence, the immediacy of his intimate, first-person, present-tense narration proves deeply moving, especially his longing for companionship. Realistic black-and-white illustrations trace key events in this unique survival story, and extensive backmatter fills in further factual information about wolves and their habitat.
A sympathetic, compelling introduction to wolves from the perspective of one wolf and his memorable journey. (additional resources, map) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-289593-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
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