Sturdily competent fantasy from a veteran Australian screenwriter, this quartet opener introduces five teenaged orphans raised together in the medieval-like kingdom of Araluen, focusing on the apprenticeship of wiry, clever Will to a mysterious scout/spy, and on Will’s changing relations with oversized, rival-later-friend Horace. Though Will’s slight physique keeps him out of Battleschool, his first choice, it turns out to be just the ticket for Ranger work, which combines survival skills and keen powers of observation with the ability to move about unseen. As Will is learning these arts, Horace is finding Battleschool almost more than he can handle, thanks to a trio of particularly brutal bullies—and further afield, evil Lord Morgarath, being bent on conquest, has sent two kalkera, brutish bear/apes, out to assassinate Araluen’s most prominent war leaders. Flanagan does nothing to boost his typecast characters, familiar themes or conventional, video-game plot above the general run, but readers with a taste for quickly paced adventure with tidy, predictable resolutions (kalkera and bullies vanquished, Will and Horace heroes and buddies) won’t be disappointed. (Fantasy. 11-13)
Pub Date: June 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-399-24454-9
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Low in physical violence, while being rich in moral and ethical issues, as well as in appealingly complex characters and...
Pub Date: March 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-316-05777-0
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Megan Tingley/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Four fifth-graders are recruited by a scheming magician in this hefty bonbon from the author of the Fablehaven tales. At first, Nate, Summer, Trevor and Pigeon think they have it good. Having asked them to help her recover a hidden treasure that (she says) belongs to her, Belinda White, friendly proprietor of a sweets shop that has just opened in their small town, provides some uncommon candies—like Moon Rocks, that give them the ability to jump like grasshoppers, and literally electrifying Shock Bits. When she begins asking them to commit certain burglaries, though, their exhilaration turns to unease, and rightly so; Mrs. White is actually after a draft from the Fountain of Youth that will make her the world’s most powerful magician. And, as it turns out, she isn’t the only magician who’s come to town—not even the only one whose magic is tied to sweets. Filling out the supporting cast with the requisite trio of bullies, plus magical minions of various (and sometimes gross) abilities, Mull trots his twist-laden plot forward to a well set-up climax. Leaving the door open an inch for sequels, he dishes up a crowd-pleaser as delicious—if not so weird—as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory . (Fantasy. 10-13)
Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-59038-783-2
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2007
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