Unlike the elusive Bigfoot, there is little left to the imagination in this quirky mother-daughter story for studious...
A skeptical middle schooler gets more than she bargained for in her own search for Bigfoot.
Asian-American Miranda Cho, 12, has big plans, with the lists to prove it. She is student-body president and aims to go to a prestigious leadership camp in Washington, D.C. The only problem is that she is on the verge of losing credits from too many absences. Her mom, Kat, who is also Asian-American, is a cryptozoologist—a serious one. This means last-minute trips to remote wilderness chasing the next big sighting of Bigfoot with little success. Her anxiety surfacing in a hair-pulling habit, Miranda tries to take her mom’s comical eccentricities in stride until she discovers a drawer full of unpaid bills threatening eviction and any possibility of her dreams coming true. Desperate, she plans her own Bigfoot search with her mom with the goal of shaming her into reality and, at the very least, responsible parenting. Very quickly her plans fall through, leading her to question everything. Although Miranda is introduced as the perfect Asian student, Kat acts as a foil and provides conflict enough to allow a fully rounded personality to develop. Eagar has a beautiful way with words. Her complex internal dialogues and descriptors allow readers to visualize, in minute detail, every physical and mental aspect of each character and their current surroundings. However, these skillfully in-depth descriptors often usurp the pace and plot.
Unlike the elusive Bigfoot, there is little left to the imagination in this quirky mother-daughter story for studious readers. (Fiction. 11-14)Pub Date: Oct. 9, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7636-9234-6
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
A thrilling conclusion to a beautifully crafted, heart-stopping trilogy.
This is the moment teens Seth, Anaya, and Petra have both been anticipating and dreading ever since aliens called cryptogens began attempting to colonize the Earth: the chance to defend their planet.
In an earlier volume, Seth, Anaya, and Petra began growing physical characteristics that made them realize they were half alien. Seth has wings, Petra has a tail, and Anaya has fur. They also have the power of telepathy, which Anaya uses to converse with Terra, a cryptogen rebel looking for human allies who could help stop the invasion of Earth. Terra plans to use a virus stored in the three teens’ bodies to disarm the flyers, which are the winged aliens that are both masterminding the invasion and enslaving the other species of cryptogens known as swimmers and runners. But Terra and her allies can’t pull any of this off without the help of Anaya, Seth, and Petra. Although the trio is anxious about their abilities, they don’t have much of a choice—the entire human race is depending on them for salvation. Like its predecessors, this trilogy closer is fast-paced and well structured. Despite its post-apocalyptic setting, the story is fundamentally character driven, and it is incredibly satisfying to watch each protagonist overcome their inner battles within the context of the larger human-alien war. Main characters read as White.
A thrilling conclusion to a beautifully crafted, heart-stopping trilogy. (Science fiction. 11-14)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-984894-80-9
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
A few promising, even brilliant bits are lost in an ill-constructed jumble of warring plotlines and ambiguous agendas.
As fleets of hostile warships gather over a floating city, a young thief finds himself the object of an urgent manhunt.
Readers can be excused for coming away bewildered by Sheehan’s competing storylines, disconnected events, genre-bending revelations, and refusal to fit any of the major players in the all-White–presenting cast consistently into the roles of villain, ally, or even protagonist. Continually shifting through points of view and annoyingly punctuated with an omniscient narrator’s portentous commentary, the tale centers on the exploits of 12-year-old street urchin Milo Quick and his squad of juvenile ragamuffins (seemingly juvenile at any rate; one is eventually revealed to be something else entirely) in an aerial city of Dickensian squalor threatened by a multinational flying armada. Though a lot of people are after Milo, ranging from the swashbuckling crew of a flying privateer hired (ostensibly) to kidnap him and a vengeful punk bent on bloody murder to a sinister truant officer paid lavishly by mysterious parties to watch over him, he ultimately winds up—or so it seems—being no more than a red herring all along. The actual target is revealed piecemeal in conversations and flashbacks before the commencement of a climactic bombardment and an abrupt cutoff in which three side characters, miraculously shrugging off multiple knife and bullet wounds, themselves suddenly take center stage to set up a sequel.
A few promising, even brilliant bits are lost in an ill-constructed jumble of warring plotlines and ambiguous agendas. (Science fiction. 11-14)Pub Date: March 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-10951-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2022
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