A stirring yet comedic look at the importance of family.
A young, biracial wizard struggles between fighting for her dreams and cheering on her family in this humorous and stirring fantasy.
With a Filipino father and a white (and magic-working) mother, 12-year-old Lennie Mercado has worked all her life to strengthen her magic, while her younger brother, Michael, just likes to goof around. She finally gets a chance at her dream of magic without limitations when her eccentric and impulsive grandfather Poppop steps down as Prime Wizard of the family and hosts a Wizardmatch competition among his grandchildren. Poppop surprises the entire family when he announces that only one sibling from each family can compete. Then Lennie overhears him tell her mother she doesn’t have the Prime Wizard look. Changed by these words, she faces an emotionally difficult journey through favoritism, sibling rivalry, and self-doubt. Magaziner creates an amusing wizard world with wacky settings and characters. She introduces a multiracial female protagonist and culture without overexplaining Filipino words, so there is no interruption to the narrative. She also weaves in themes of gender and racial equality, ultimately affirming the possibility of changing others’ mindsets by speaking up. Overall, it’s a heartwarming, often funny fantasy that balances magic and whimsy with topics all youth can relate to.
A stirring yet comedic look at the importance of family. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7352-2778-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
A touching tale of preteen angst and translation troubles.
A trip to Vietnam did not figure in Laguna, California, girl Mai Le's summer plans!
Twelve-year-old Mai (Mia at school) was looking forward to a summer at the beach with her bestie, Montana, trying to catch the eye of HIM (a boy from school), but she's forced on to a plane to keep her grandmother, Bà, company on a trip of indeterminate length. Ông, Bà's husband, went missing during the Vietnam War, and a detective claims to have found a man who knows something about Ông. Mai and Bà stay in Bà's home village, while Mai's doctor father heads into the mountains to run a clinic. Mai's Vietnamese is rusty, and only teenage boy Minh speaks English (but with a Texas accent). The heat, the mosquitoes...even the maybe-relatives are torture. Out of touch with all things American, Mai worries that Montana may put the moves on HIM; and the only girl in the village her age, Ut, is obsessed with frogs. For her sophomore effort, Newbery Honor author Lai delivers a funny, realistic tale of family and friendship and culture clashes. The subtle humor of clunky translations of Vietnamese into English and vice versa are a great contrast to Mai’s sharp and sometimes-snarky observations that offer a window into Vietnamese village life and language.
A touching tale of preteen angst and translation troubles. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Feb. 17, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-222918-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2014
A wonderfully frightening tale.
Children are snatched from their beds and erased from all memory.
Levi and Kat often feel like they’re the only ones out of place in their small suburban town of Cowslip Grove. The two children feel a slight remove from their classmates and families; the one thing binding them together is their ability to see what everyone else cannot: Children are disappearing. And no one else seems to remember these children ever existed. After Levi’s younger sister, Twila, is taken by this evil force, Levi and Kat embark on a journey into the town’s sinister past to try to save her and stop the monster once and for all. The spooky tale is complemented by ink illustrations that will give even the bravest reader a case of the willies. The narrative is smartly structured, moving the characters forward at a perfect pace that balances the tricky trifecta of thrills, exposition, and character development. This is one hell of a middle-grade read, the kind that will spark imaginations as it is read late at night under the covers with a flashlight. Levi and Kat appear White; the black-and-white illustrations seem to show some human ethnic diversity. (This review has been updated to reflect changes to the final book.)
A wonderfully frightening tale. (Horror. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-358-12853-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
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