A sprawling, engrossing fantasy that deftly explores Christian themes in a dramatic fashion.
Two siblings from Arkansas fight to survive in a magical world.
This debut novel follows in the footsteps of C.S. Lewis, creating a Christian allegory in a fantasy world. Twelve-year-old twins Chayse and Reed Leftwich are home alone while their adoring but overstretched mother is busy at work; their loving yet irresponsible father has moved out. Then a social worker shows up and takes them into custody. After a quick hearing, the twins are handed over to foster parents, but things get complicated when the couple take them from the Ozarks into another world, ruled by the Elfwitch. The Elfwitch demand that the twins hand over silver necklaces they were given by their mother. Reed refuses and is sent to prison while Chayse agrees and starts to follow the Elfwitch. Chayse learns about potions and the Elfwitch’s ambitions while Reed builds alliances with his fellow prisoners, breaks out of jail, and finds out about the new land’s problems. The people have turned their backs on the Judge who set down the Law and sent his Son as his representative, and the Elfwitch conspire to unseat the rightful queen. Chayse and Reed struggle to understand why everyone in this new world resembles people they know in Arkansas—including their parents—and eventually realize that defeating the Elfwitch and restoring the Judge’s rule are crucial steps in their quest to get back to their own realm. While the fantasy world’s Christian symbolism is not subtle (“So the Judge sent his Son. He said, ‘Surely, they will listen to my Son and return to the Law.’ But the people loved the Darkness more and called that the Light”), it is well integrated into the plot and the worldbuilding. Dramatic battle scenes, mysterious enchantments, monstrous creatures, and unfamiliar environments situate the story firmly in the fantasy genre, and the religious themes mesh with the plot. The writing is not entirely polished, but Cummins tells a solid and engaging story.
A sprawling, engrossing fantasy that deftly explores Christian themes in a dramatic fashion.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9798985392012
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A frolicking adventure light on plot but delightfully interested in the importance of play.
An extrovert takes her homebody sister on a jampacked tour of the outside world in this illustrated children’s chapter book.
Polar opposites Sophie and Amelia live in “a giant treehouse near the woods,” apparently without adult supervision. Sophie stays almost completely indoors at all times, perusing books on an e-reader and “studying to become the perfect grown up.” Amelia likes to explore, dance, and make friends alongside her large-nosed dog, Columbus. On Amelia’s birthday, she asks Sophie to accompany her on an escapade, and her sister reluctantly agrees. They dance without music in a sunflower patch, climb a mountain, visit New York City, take a helicopter to an island, and are picked up by a friendly ex-pirate. Along the way, Amelia consistently pleads with Sophie to give each new activity a chance. Sophie grumblingly obliges while fretting all the while about inefficiency, the violation of social norms, and her transformation into a frivolous girl unprepared for adulthood. The sisters’ unrealistically packed day is stuffed with parables for lackluster children and feels a little preachy—can kids be made to embrace whimsy? But Vogdt’s celebration of rambunctiousness and curiosity is a nice counterweight to the pressures on youngsters to succeed only in quantitative terms. The most touching moment comes when Amelia tells Sophie to scream into the empty island air: “Just don’t tell me you never feel angry,” she says when her sister hesitates. Paz’s black-and-white illustrations pepper the text, enlivening the narrative with detailed pictures of Sophie’s increasing relaxation. Amelia has a slight Pippi Longstocking–ish charm, though her antics never veer into the mischievous or absurd. A dusting of intriguing magical happenings toward the end of the story adds a little verve and mystique. Both girls are White. A Black Lives Matter sign appears in Times Square behind them and they pass a climate justice protest, though the subject matter of both political images is not discussed in the text.
A frolicking adventure light on plot but delightfully interested in the importance of play. (Ages 5-8)Pub Date: Dec. 21, 2021
ISBN: 978-9895344901
Page Count: 100
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Dec. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An engrossing fantasy laced with inventive sparkle and dark undercurrents.
A debut middle-grade novel sees a teenage loner discover his magical heritage and become embroiled in an otherworldly conflict.
Middle schooler Wren Larkin lives in Pennsylvania in a peculiar old house designed by his grandfather to resemble a gigantic shoe. Wren has an affinity with nature. He grows plants and befriends a murder of crows. But otherwise, he keeps to himself. Wren’s mother fell into a coma when he was 4 years old. His father is emotionally distant, and his eccentric aunt—the one who told him crazy stories of a magical kingdom named Vinland—died a few years back in a car accident, or so Wren was told. But Wren’s life is about to be turned upside down. The same day he thinks he sees his aunt in the fog, new girl Maria Tovar arrives at school and takes an instant liking to him. She also defends the class troublemaker, Rusty Whitaker. Before Wren knows it, the three are thrown together against a powerful Drainer (a magician who can suck the life out of any living thing). In a world suddenly bristling with magic, Wren and his new friends are armed only with three pairs of enchanted shoes that the teen’s grandfather left for them years ago in a secret room in the quirky house. Were all of his aunt’s stories true? What further secrets lie hidden in Wren’s lineage? In this series opener, Resh writes in the first person, past tense, creating in Wren a complex personality with relatable teen troubles but plenty of strength. The other characters are less nuanced—Rusty in particular is larger than life, verging on a cliché—but this perhaps is in keeping with the infusion of magic in what Wren had taken to be his own, admittedly atypical, corner of the mundane world. The prose throughout is engaging, with the author presenting an agreeable mix of description, narrative, and mostly naturalistic dialogue. The plot is absorbing and gains momentum as it goes along, displaying a wild imagination and pitting its protagonists against genuine peril. The ending may not satisfy those readers who like their books self-contained, but for those who can move directly to the sequel, there’s a great deal here to like.
An engrossing fantasy laced with inventive sparkle and dark undercurrents.Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-954614-50-5
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Warren Publishing, Inc.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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