In this action-packed historical page-turner, destitute siblings Joe and Annie (a trance medium) escape from an apprenticeship with an abusive farmer and make their way to Manchester, hoping to find their mother. It’s 1830s England, and the kids survive with help from a self-sufficient philosophical tramp, an enigmatic Dog-woman, performers in a traveling fair and a clandestine radical newspaper publisher. Danger and abject poverty lurk in every corner of this sweeping, episodic narrative, under which swirls the author’s keen interest in the history of the urban poor and social reform. She tackles a great deal—deaths of workhouse children, the great cholera epidemic, the repeal of the stamp tax and the complicated class issues endemic to Manchester, an industrial “feudal city” on the verge of change—though often provides only a surface introduction to the complex matters of those times. It is the value of a good story that's at the heart of this adventurous 19th-century tale, and Michael via her intrepid protagonist Joe tells a swell one. (author’s note, glossary) (Historical fiction. 10 )
Pub Date: May 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-399-24357-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
A must-read with a conclusion that will leave readers craving more.
A monster spreads madness through the streets of Shanghai.
It is the autumn of 1926, and Shanghai is poised at the brink of transformation. Foreign powers have carved out portions of the city for themselves; what remains is divided between two feuding gangs, the Chinese Scarlet Gang and the Russian White Flowers. Eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai has returned home from New York City, wreathed in a reputation for ruthlessness and ready to step into her role as heir to the Scarlet Gang. Four years ago, a betrayal by the White Flowers heir, Roma Montagov, a young man of 19, led to the deaths of countless Scarlets, and Juliette is determined to avenge her gang. But when a lethal contagion strikes the city, targeting Scarlets and White Flowers alike, Juliette and Roma grudgingly agree to cooperate on an investigation in order to save their city. The slow-burning romance in this book takes a back seat to the gripping mystery grounded in immersive historical detail. Allusions to Romeo and Juliet are evident in names and specific scenes, but familiar themes of family, loyalty, and identity bear new significance in Gong’s inventive adaptation. Language is a tool wielded deftly by the multilingual characters, who switch easily among English, French, Shanghainese, Russian, and more, with Mandarin as the primary dialect for Chinese phrases. A strong supporting cast that includes a trans girl completes this striking debut.
A must-read with a conclusion that will leave readers craving more. (Historical fantasy. 13-18)Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-5769-0
Page Count: 464
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
Imaginative and dazzlingly theatrical at the end, though on the long and wandering side.
A traumatized family heals most of its cracks as it bumbles from Meanyopolis to Truphoria.
It’s been more than six decades since Feiffer illustrated Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth, but he’s still sending young people into metaphorical fantasy realms to meet quirky residents and bumble along on personal quests toward self-actualization. Here, the horrifying prospect of getting a new dad, home, and siblings propels quarrelsome Pearlie and contrary little brother Curly into the Lost Dimension of Ephemera. They’re followed by older sister Shirley with her hunky but dimwitted fiance, Earl, and finally their indecisive mom, who sings the titular song (“I cried, I sighed, / alone, I’d moan, / ’twas grapes / that set me free”). Mommy, in a protracted search for her true identity, becomes the real protagonist. Or at least, by the end, she sends her children on their ways and evinces the most change among the characters. Accompanied by a dog/cat named Kelly and a wildly mutable monster representing doubt (or something like it), various members of the clan encounter locals, from the Feary (“rhymes with scary”) Queen to an attacking troupe of dapper, dancing, deadly Elegantics. The story culminates in a wedding and a last reprise of the theme song. In the art dialogue balloons, bright colors and scribbly lines feature more prominently than the human figures, who are posed with balletic grace. Main characters present white.
Imaginative and dazzlingly theatrical at the end, though on the long and wandering side. (Graphic fantasy. 11-16)Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2024
ISBN: 9780062963833
Page Count: 296
Publisher: Michael di Capua/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
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