An interestingly unconventional amalgamation of tropes and genre.
In this trilogy closer, two superhero brothers and their magical friends face their nefarious foe for the ultimate battle.
Jumping right in where middle volume In the Trenches (2017) concluded, brothers Tucker and Hudson—also known as the magically enhanced superheroes Stretch and Brella—are breathing a bit easier after defeating their evil teacher Mr. Motstander. Unfortunately, their small island home does not stay quiet for long, and the brothers soon discover that their adversary has persisted. Motstander seeks to destroy the brothers’ reputations, exploiting the fickleness of public favor in the age of social media. With the help of their friends who possess their own magically imbued objects, the motley crew gears up for what can only be a battle to the death. Genre constraints are thoroughly smashed as this nontraditional superhero tale weaves a quirky pastiche of time travel, light romance, and fantasy. Brothers Tuck and Hudson are white, while secondary characters offer some diversity both racially and in terms of disability; shallow development among these characters is particularly frustrating. Hansen’s bold line-and-wash illustrations easily transition from world to world, whether he is evincing the boys’ small island community, prehistoric scenes of rampaging dinosaurs, or a fantastic, medieval-ish landscape populated by dragons. Though this volume declares itself the conclusion, the end hints at more adventures to come.
An interestingly unconventional amalgamation of tropes and genre. (Graphic adventure. 9-12)Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-8037-4096-9
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A truly #BlackGirlMagic, cloudy-day, curl-up kind of book.
Maya knows her father’s stories aren’t real—are they?
Maya, a comic-book–loving, anemic 12-year-old Black girl, is suffering through situational math when she experiences a sudden, time-stopped moment when “the color bled from the world like someone was sucking it away through a straw.” That is not the only strange incident: Maya has an all-too-real dream of a man with skin “the color of the moon” and “pale violet eyes” who has the same color-sucking ability; her structural engineer papa literally disappears in front of her; and when she and her friends Frankie and Eli find themselves fighting shape-shifting darkbringers, Frankie discovers her own light-shooting skills. What Maya, Frankie, Eli, and readers find out from Maya’s mother is that Papa’s real identity is Elegguá, the most powerful of the West African orishas, guardian of the veil between this world and those of the darkbringers and other forces. Not only that, but Frankie’s newly found gift came from her late mother, who is also an orisha, and Eli is part orisha, too. The astonishing series of subsequent revelations leaves readers agog, eager to know how Maya and her pals will use their powers to heal the veil and save their mostly Black and brown neighborhood. In her author’s note, Barron describes how this book has risen from her explorations of the traditions of her West African ancestors.
A truly #BlackGirlMagic, cloudy-day, curl-up kind of book. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-328-63518-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
The dice are rolling readers’ way in this third outing.
Sunny, in seventh grade, finds her score on the Groovy Meter taking some wild swings as her friends’ interests move in different directions.
In a motif that haunts her throughout, Sunny succumbs to a teen magazine’s personality quiz and sees her tally seesaw radically. Her BF Deb has suddenly switched focus to boys, clothes, and bands such as the Bee Gees (this is 1977)—dismissing trick-or-treating and wearing galoshes on rainy days as “babyish.” Meanwhile, Sunny takes delight in joining nerdy neighbors Lev, Brian, and Arun in regular sessions of Dungeons and Dragons (as a fighter character, so cool). The storytelling is predominantly visual in this episodic outing, with just occasional snatches of dialogue and pithy labels to fill in details or mark the passage of time; frequent reaction shots deftly capture Sunny’s feelings of being pulled this way and that. Tellingly, in the Holms’ panels (colored by Pien), Sunny’s depicted as significantly smaller than Deb, visually underscoring her developmental awkwardness. Deb’s comment that “we’re too old to be playing games like that” leads Sunny to drop out of the D&D circle and even go to the school’s staggeringly dull spring dance. Sunny’s mostly white circle of peers expands and becomes more diverse as she continues to navigate her way through the dark chambers and misty passages of early adolescence. Lev is an Orthodox Jew, Arun is South Asian, and Regina, another female friend, has brown skin.
The dice are rolling readers’ way in this third outing. (Graphic historical fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-23314-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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