Twig is afraid of her emerging talents as a Dreamer, but if she wants to protect her people, she must learn to control her power. Her whole village is under threat from the terrible Thornback raiders, who rampage through the land killing and enslaving everyone they meet. Twig’s dreams, however, point to a far more terrible danger: a hideous light in the sky. With the help of an ostracized shaman and her best friend, Twig begins a dangerous journey to save her people. Twig’s story is set during a controversial new archaeological theory’s hypothesized comet explosion over North America. The proposed comet is held responsible for destroying the Paleoamerican Clovis culture, the culture in which the Gears have placed Twig. Readers hoping to learn how the Clovis people ate, built and lived will be disappointed, but those looking for an exciting fantasy novel will be pleased by the unusual setting, the well-paced action and the individual lens on culture change at a massive scale. A little bit of Paleolithic speculation wrapped around a spiritual coming-of-age. (Fantasy. 9-11)
Pub Date: July 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-7653-2019-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Starscape/Tom Doherty
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2009
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Reports of children requesting rewrites of The Reluctant Dragon are rare at best, but this new version may be pleasing to young or adult readers less attuned to the pleasures of literary period pieces. Along with modernizing the language—“Hmf! This Beowulf fellow had a severe anger management problem”—DiTerlizzi dials down the original’s violence. The red-blooded Boy is transformed into a pacifistic bunny named Kenny, St. George is just George the badger, a retired knight who owns a bookstore, and there is no actual spearing (or, for that matter, references to the annoyed knight’s “Oriental language”) in the climactic show-fight with the friendly, crème-brulée-loving dragon Grahame. In look and spirit, the author’s finely detailed drawings of animals in human dress are more in the style of Lynn Munsinger than, for instance, Ernest Shepard or Michael Hague. They do, however, nicely reflect the bright, informal tone of the text. A readable, if denatured, rendition of a faded classic. (Fantasy. 9-11)
Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4169-3977-1
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2008
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Who needs dragons when there are Terrible Lizards to be fought?
Having recklessly boasted to King Arthur and the court that he’d slain 40 dragons, Sir Erec can hardly refuse when Merlin offers him more challenging foes…and so it is that in no time (so to speak), Erec, with bookish Sir Hector, the silent and enigmatic Black Knight, and blustering Sir Bors with his thin but doughty squire, Mel, in tow, are hewing away at fearsome creatures sporting natural armor and weapons every bit as effective as knightly ones. Happily, while all the glorious mashing and bashing leads to awesome feats aplenty—who would suspect that a ravening T. Rex could be decked by a well-placed punch to the jaw?—when the dust settles neither bloodshed nor permanent injury has been dealt to either side. Better yet, not even the stunning revelation that two of the Three Stooges–style bumblers aren’t what they seem (“Anyone else here a girl?”) keeps the questers from developing into a well-knit team capable of repeatedly saving one another’s bacon. Phelan endows the all-white human cast with finely drawn, eloquently expressive faces but otherwise works in a loose, movement-filled style, pitting his clanking crew against an almost nonstop onslaught of toothy monsters in a monochrome mix of single scenes and occasional wordless sequential panels.
Epic—in plot, not length—and as wise and wonderful as Gerald Morris’ Arthurian exploits. (Graphic/fantasy hybrid. 9-11)Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-268623-7
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
Categories: CHILDREN'S ACTION & ADVENTURE FICTION
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