A promising start to a series for fledgling fantasy readers
The first entry in the Last Firehawk series introduces the whimsical adventures of a brave little owl and his friends.
In the land of Perodia, a dark Shadow encroaches on Valor Wood. The evil vulture Thorn (who, oddly, doesn’t appear in this first book though he’s mentioned in the introduction) controls The Shadow’s dark magic, aiming, for reasons unknown, to destroy the beautiful forest. Enter Tag, a small barn owl with big dreams. He longs to join the Owls of Valor, a group of warriors who protect Valor Wood from threats like Thorn and The Shadow. When Grey, their wise old leader, forbids all animals from entering the treacherous Howling Caves, Tag sees his chance to prove his bravery. Tag and his best pal, Skyla, a mischievous, slingshot-wielding girl squirrel, set off to investigate the caves, where they find a mysterious golden egg. Soon, the egg hatches the eponymous last firehawk, whom Tag names Blaze. Firehawks are magical birds, long thought extinct, who guard the Ember Stone against any who might use it for ill. Unfortunately, the Stone is broken and scattered about Perodia. Tag, Skyla, and Blaze must race to collect the Stone’s pieces before Thorn can get his vile talons on them and destroy the world. The black-and-white sketches depict Disney-esque, wide-eyed animals, while onomatopoeia pops off the page at regular intervals. The story is heavy on dialogue, with no shortage of exclamation points, keeping the energy level high and pages turning.
A promising start to a series for fledgling fantasy readers . (Animal fantasy. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-338-12230-5
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Branches/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
When the nurse offers some healthy recipes and the students brainstorm a few fun exercises for recess, everyone gets in on...
In her fourth outing, when Miss Fox notices sleepy students, rumbly tummies and huffs and puffs at recess, she realizes that her class needs some help getting into better shape.
When the nurse offers some healthy recipes and the students brainstorm a few fun exercises for recess, everyone gets in on the action—the principal, the custodian and even the kids’ families. Soon the children are giving each other ideas. When Bear tells the class that he can’t sleep after watching Robo-Lobster, his friends list some things he can do instead of watching television. Squirrel shares his healthy snack with Mouse so she won’t eat candy. And it’s not long before Raccoon finds a solution to Frog’s sleep troubles. All the hard work pays off on Field Day, when Miss Fox’s class comes in first, but even better is the increased energy and good feelings they all have enjoyed because of their efforts. As in earlier installments, Miss Fox’s students embrace change almost too easily to be believable, and Spinelli glosses over the difficult work that goes into changing habits. Kennedy’s cast of anthropomorphized animals is comprised of an appealing range of emotions and attitudes, while the endpapers give readers a few more ways to get into better shape.Pub Date: July 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8075-5171-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2011
Not even the relatively lengthy afterword can fill all the holes in this superficial, less-than-compelling profile.
A strangely uninformative look at a python’s life and life cycle.
A python (identified in the closing note as an Australian diamond python) slithers from shelter to bask in the sun, shed her skin and nab a rat (after missing a bird). Suddenly eggs appear, as if from nowhere. The python conscientiously incubates them until they begin to hatch, then abruptly departs to let her offspring “start their own lives of smelling, resting, watching…and waiting.” The earnest narrative is accompanied on each spread by additional details in an insufficiently different typeface. Cheng slides past any direct mention of death (“When the rat can no longer breathe, dinner is ready”), drops in a vague reference to unidentified egg “predators” and presents at best a sketchy overview of snake anatomy. Readers wondering how pythons get around, how those eggs came to be fertilized or laid, and like questions will find no answers here—either in the text or in Jackson’s muddy, indistinct painted illustrations.
Not even the relatively lengthy afterword can fill all the holes in this superficial, less-than-compelling profile. (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Feb. 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6396-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
