Despite unevenness, strong humor (from puns to Loki’s shenanigans) and hints at deeper frost giant machinations keep the...
Loki cuts Sif’s hair in this spin on the Norse myth set at Asgard Academy, first introduced in Freya and the Magic Jewel (2018).
Sif’s reluctant to share her gift for prophecy due to her struggles in reading runes and past mishaps (including a second-grade incident that cost her a best friend). She also has an interest in Thor (which Freya interprets as a crush—Sif isn’t so sure of that). Her fellow Thunder Girls suspect that Loki likes Sif and is messing with her to draw her attention away from Thor. Then Loki goes too far—cutting Sif’s hair, which is tied to her magic that enables the harvest on Midgard. This is terrible timing, as frost giants have been sneaking to Midgard to steal wheat, and signs point to a planned attack on Asgard. Now not only must Loki fix his misstep in order to avoid a food shortage, but Sif tasks him with bringing back five additional gifts for Asgard’s defense. Sif and Freya follow him to keep an eye on the troublemaker as he bargains with dwarf blacksmiths to restore Sif’s hair. Readers may be disappointed that Sif spends so much time as an observer—although there’s no question watching Loki is entertaining—and in the big reveal involving the second-grade incident and its solution, which feels anticlimactic after the buildup. The book assumes a white default.
Despite unevenness, strong humor (from puns to Loki’s shenanigans) and hints at deeper frost giant machinations keep the series moving. (further reading, glossary) (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4814-9643-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and...
Catrina narrates the story of her mixed-race (Latino/white) family’s move from Southern California to Bahía de la Luna on the Northern California coast.
Dad has a new job, but it’s little sister Maya’s lungs that motivate the move: she has had cystic fibrosis since birth—a degenerative breathing condition. Despite her health, Maya loves adventure, even if her lungs suffer for it and even when Cat must follow to keep her safe. When Carlos, a tall, brown, and handsome teen Ghost Tour guide introduces the sisters to the Bahía ghosts—most of whom were Spanish-speaking Mexicans when alive—they fascinate Maya and she them, but the terrified Cat wants only to get herself and Maya back to safety. When the ghost adventure leads to Maya’s hospitalization, Cat blames both herself and Carlos, which makes seeing him at school difficult. As Cat awakens to the meaning of Halloween and Day of the Dead in this strange new home, she comes to understand the importance of the ghosts both to herself and to Maya. Telgemeier neatly balances enough issues that a lesser artist would split them into separate stories and delivers as much delight textually as visually. The backmatter includes snippets from Telgemeier’s sketchbook and a photo of her in Día makeup.
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and unable to put down this compelling tale. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-54061-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
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