It’s an unabashed pastiche, but it doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Young Glinda and her purple-haired friend Locasta take another step toward saving Oz by tackling the Wicked Witch of the North.
Aphidina, the Wicked Witch of the South, may be history (see A Fiery Friendship, 2017), but even as the grass-roots Foursworn Revolution gathers steam, challenges remain for the band of doughty young heroes. Notable among these is finding and enlisting the long-hidden Elemental Fairies to battle not only the remaining three Wicked Witches, but also the disembodied “fifth Witch” who controls them. Fiedler strews the narrative with sly allusions (“I have a feeling we aren’t in Quadling anymore”), such requisite elements as a magic map and rhymed clues (Locasta: “Oh, hey, here’s a surprise. Another obscure and cryptic verse for us to decipher”), and melodramatic but leisurely battles in which no one is ever described as bleeding or dying. She populates her quest with exotic denizens from Sea Fairies and the winged monkeys to the pun-loving Nome King. Flashbacks, references to recent events, and a plethora of characters both new and vintage make familiarity with the opener a must and at least a passing acquaintance with some of the original series’ classic episodes a good idea. Oz’s inhabitants come in a great variety of colors and species; Glinda and the human(oid) members of her company are white.
It’s an unabashed pastiche, but it doesn’t take itself too seriously. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: May 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4814-6974-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
A solid debut: fluent, funny and eminently sequel-worthy.
Inventively tweaking a popular premise, Jensen pits two Incredibles-style families with superpowers against each other—until a new challenge rises to unite them.
The Johnsons invariably spit at the mere mention of their hated rivals, the Baileys. Likewise, all Baileys habitually shake their fists when referring to the Johnsons. Having long looked forward to getting a superpower so that he too can battle his clan’s nemeses, Rafter Bailey is devastated when, instead of being able to fly or something else cool, he acquires the “power” to strike a match on soft polyester. But when hated classmate Juanita Johnson turns up newly endowed with a similarly bogus power and, against all family tradition, they compare notes, it becomes clear that something fishy is going on. Both families regard themselves as the heroes and their rivals as the villains. Someone has been inciting them to fight each other. Worse yet, that someone has apparently developed a device that turns real superpowers into silly ones. Teaching themselves on the fly how to get past their prejudice and work together, Rafter, his little brother, Benny, and Juanita follow a well-laid-out chain of clues and deductions to the climactic discovery of a third, genuinely nefarious family, the Joneses, and a fiendishly clever scheme to dispose of all the Baileys and Johnsons at once. Can they carry the day?
A solid debut: fluent, funny and eminently sequel-worthy. (Adventure. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-06-220961-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
It’s great to see these kids “so enthusiastic about committing high treason.” (historical note) (Historical fiction. 10-12)
Near the end of World War II, two kids join their parents in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler.
Max, 12, lives with his parents and his older sister in a Berlin that’s under constant air bombardment. During one such raid, a mortally wounded man stumbles into the white German family’s home and gasps out his last wish: “The Führer must die.” With this nighttime visitation, Max and Gerta discover their parents have been part of a resistance cell, and the siblings want in. They meet a colorful band of upper-class types who seem almost too whimsical to be serious. Despite her charming levity, Prussian aristocrat and cell leader Frau Becker is grimly aware of the stakes. She enlists Max and Gerta as couriers who sneak forged identification papers to Jews in hiding. Max and Gerta are merely (and realistically) cogs in the adults’ plans, but there’s plenty of room for their own heroism. They escape capture, rescue each other when they’re caught out during an air raid, and willingly put themselves repeatedly at risk to catch a spy. The fictional plotters—based on a mix of several real anti-Hitler resistance cells—are portrayed with a genuine humor, giving them the space to feel alive even in such a slim volume.
It’s great to see these kids “so enthusiastic about committing high treason.” (historical note) (Historical fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-35902-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
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