An interesting premise that never comes together.
As a Valkyrie, Freya is charged with bringing the chosen warriors to Valhalla, where they spend the afterlife drinking, feasting, and battling, but she finds violence horrifying and longs for a different life.
In this regard she is unlike her mother and sisters, who find serving as Odin’s shield maidens honorable. Freya’s first reaping matches her with African-American soldier Tyrone, who likewise wants nothing to do with the festivities in Asgard. He elects to pass through the Gates of Ascension and enter heaven. But before he departs, he makes Freya promise to take care of the family he is leaving behind. Freya’s only hope of leaving Asgard is Loki, Odin’s trickster son. On Earth, Freya finds friendship, purpose, and some surprising allies. However, Loki is up to his old tricks. Soon Freya finds herself at the center of a battle between the forces of Asgard and the humans she has come to love. While this alternative look at Norse mythology is intriguing, the earthbound narrative is decidedly not. Freya is a confusing mix of mythological being and angst-riddled young girl. The repetitive plot lacks energy and originality, and the ending is similarly lackluster and predictable.
An interesting premise that never comes together. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-4737-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2015
Dizzyingly silly.
The famous superhero returns to fight another villain with all the trademark wit and humor the series is known for.
Despite the title, Captain Underpants is bizarrely absent from most of this adventure. His school-age companions, George and Harold, maintain most of the spotlight. The creative chums fool around with time travel and several wacky inventions before coming upon the evil Turbo Toilet 2000, making its return for vengeance after sitting out a few of the previous books. When the good Captain shows up to save the day, he brings with him dynamic action and wordplay that meet the series’ standards. The Captain Underpants saga maintains its charm even into this, the 11th volume. The epic is filled to the brim with sight gags, toilet humor, flip-o-ramas and anarchic glee. Holding all this nonsense together is the author’s good-natured sense of harmless fun. The humor is never gross or over-the-top, just loud and innocuous. Adults may roll their eyes here and there, but youngsters will eat this up just as quickly as they devoured every other Underpants episode.
Dizzyingly silly. (Humor. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-50490-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sympathetic, compelling introduction to wolves from the perspective of one wolf and his memorable journey.
Separated from his pack, Swift, a young wolf, embarks on a perilous search for a new home.
Swift’s mother impresses on him early that his “pack belongs to the mountains and the mountains belong to the pack.” His father teaches him to hunt elk, avoid skunks and porcupines, revere the life that gives them life, and “carry on” when their pack is devastated in an attack by enemy wolves. Alone and grieving, Swift reluctantly leaves his mountain home. Crossing into unfamiliar territory, he’s injured and nearly dies, but the need to run, hunt, and live drives him on. Following a routine of “walk-trot-eat-rest,” Swift traverses prairies, canyons, and deserts, encountering men with rifles, hunger, thirst, highways, wild horses, a cougar, and a forest fire. Never imagining the “world could be so big or that I could be so alone in it,” Swift renames himself Wander as he reaches new mountains and finds a new home. Rife with details of the myriad scents, sounds, tastes, touches, and sights in Swift/Wander’s primal existence, the immediacy of his intimate, first-person, present-tense narration proves deeply moving, especially his longing for companionship. Realistic black-and-white illustrations trace key events in this unique survival story, and extensive backmatter fills in further factual information about wolves and their habitat.
A sympathetic, compelling introduction to wolves from the perspective of one wolf and his memorable journey. (additional resources, map) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-289593-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
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