Like comfort food for book lovers.
A 13-year-old boy discovers the magic of books in this enjoyable yet familiar coming-of-age tale from renowned Mexican author Villoro.
Summer begins for Juan with the terrible news of his parents’ separation. Instead of looking forward to fun times with his best friend, Juan must now pass his summer holidays with his eccentric uncle Tito, a reclusive man devoted to his vast library. When Uncle Tito names him a Lector Princeps, a reader with a powerful connection to books, Juan plunges deep into his uncle’s “labyrinth of books,” classified into distinct, enigmatic sections such as “Cheeses That Stink But Taste Delicious” and “Marmalade Is Not Money.” Framed in the past tense, with an older Juan recollecting his adventure as a lad, Villoro’s novel packs gentle wit in a minor saga. As Juan encounters books that move on their own, books that are allies, and even books that steal the contents of other books, his uncle recruits him into a search for The Wild Book, a mysterious book that eludes all readers. To find it Juan gets help from Catalina, a girl who literally leaves Juan tongue-tied. The author offers a narrative arc as traditional and archetypical as its characters, but some readers may find Juan’s adventure welcoming on its own merits. Plus, that the author and protagonist share a name adds a neat (if underutilized) wrinkle to this novel.
Like comfort food for book lovers. (Magical realism. 10-14)Pub Date: Nov. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-63206-147-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Yonder
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
Wholesome shading to bland, but well-stocked with exotic creatures and locales, plus an agreeable cast headed by a child...
A San Diego preteen learns that she’s an elf, with a place in magic school if she moves to the elves’ hidden realm.
Having felt like an outsider since a knock on the head at age 5 left her able to read minds, Sophie is thrilled when hunky teen stranger Fitz convinces her that she’s not human at all and transports her to the land of Lumenaria, where the ageless elves live. Taken in by a loving couple who run a sanctuary for extinct and mythical animals, Sophie quickly gathers friends and rivals at Foxfire, a distinctly Hogwarts-style school. She also uncovers both clues to her mysterious origins and hints that a rash of strangely hard-to-quench wildfires back on Earth are signs of some dark scheme at work. Though Messenger introduces several characters with inner conflicts and ambiguous agendas, Sophie herself is more simply drawn as a smart, radiant newcomer who unwillingly becomes the center of attention while developing what turn out to be uncommonly powerful magical abilities—reminiscent of the younger Harry Potter, though lacking that streak of mischievousness that rescues Harry from seeming a little too perfect. The author puts her through a kidnapping and several close brushes with death before leaving her poised, amid hints of a higher destiny and still-anonymous enemies, for sequels.
Wholesome shading to bland, but well-stocked with exotic creatures and locales, plus an agreeable cast headed by a child who, while overly fond of screaming, rises to every challenge. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-4593-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
A fun, if messy, thriller that’s not afraid to go straight over the top.
A middle schooler must outrun a cadre of strange individuals while puzzling out the truth of what he is in this science-fiction offering.
Fourteen-year-old Noah Prime longs to live somewhere bigger than his small town of Arbuckle, Oregon, though he is happily involved in motocross—at least until he learns that the course is being torn down to make way for a condo development. This bad news coincides with some particularly strange happenings in Noah’s life, such as a literal (and very confusing) collision he has with Sahara, a girl that he comes to find very interesting. This is followed by his experiencing a brief and total paralysis while arguing with some bullies, which his friend Ogden, who is on the autism spectrum, insists is due to a psychological phenomenon called conversion disorder. The truth turns out to be much more complex, and it sends Noah, younger sister Andi, Ogden, and Sahara on a madcap quest involving aliens, time travel, an erupting volcano, and much more. The adventure is laced throughout with goofy, sarcastic humor, balancing the fantastical and somewhat confusing turns of events. While there is resolution at the story’s end, it also clearly sets the stage for a follow-up. The main characters read White by default.
A fun, if messy, thriller that’s not afraid to go straight over the top. (Science fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: April 11, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5524-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
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