A winning testament to the value of friendship and to a surly dragon’s power of persuasion.
Caution: a wyvern’s talons might pluck you up and drop you smack in the middle of a legendary quest.
Indomitable duo Karn and Thianna went their separate ways after battling the undead and outwitting ornery dragon Orm in Frostborn (2014). Karn now lives the life of a lauded hero. Content but somewhat jaded, he pines for the excitement and camaraderie he shared with Thianna. Enter Orm, who recruits Karn to seek the second Horn of Osius, an ancient relic capable of commanding dragons (Orm digested the first horn in book one to safeguard his kind). Karn is reluctant until he learns that Thianna was the initial recruit and has since disappeared. As Karn endeavors to solve an ancient riddle that will lead him to the horn and, more importantly, to Thianna, reminders abound that a soft heart is compatible with strength and resilience. As he did in the preceding volume, Anders presents a captivating world of richly imagined biomes, grim outlooks, plenty of gaming, and fantasy fauna (giant bats, gnomes, a pride of manticores preoccupied with manure). Whereas the first book was characterized by a fair amount of adult guidance, this tale is primarily propelled by young protagonists and antagonists (an enthralling doppelgänger dark elf pair also seeks the horn). In turn, Karn and Thianna are more defiant, less naïve, and have more to lose this time around—namely each other—but they refuse to lose themselves.
A winning testament to the value of friendship and to a surly dragon’s power of persuasion. (maps, glossary, game rules, “historical” note) (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: July 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-39036-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense.
In the midst of political turmoil, how do you escape the only country that you’ve ever known and navigate a new life? Parallel stories of three different middle school–aged refugees—Josef from Nazi Germany in 1938, Isabel from 1994 Cuba, and Mahmoud from 2015 Aleppo—eventually intertwine for maximum impact.
Three countries, three time periods, three brave protagonists. Yet these three refugee odysseys have so much in common. Each traverses a landscape ruled by a dictator and must balance freedom, family, and responsibility. Each initially leaves by boat, struggles between visibility and invisibility, copes with repeated obstacles and heart-wrenching loss, and gains resilience in the process. Each third-person narrative offers an accessible look at migration under duress, in which the behavior of familiar adults changes unpredictably, strangers exploit the vulnerabilities of transients, and circumstances seem driven by random luck. Mahmoud eventually concludes that visibility is best: “See us….Hear us. Help us.” With this book, Gratz accomplishes a feat that is nothing short of brilliant, offering a skillfully wrought narrative laced with global and intergenerational reverberations that signal hope for the future. Excellent for older middle grade and above in classrooms, book groups, and/or communities looking to increase empathy for new and existing arrivals from afar.
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense. (maps, author’s note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: July 25, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-88083-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
PROFILES
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel.
Sure signs that the creative wells are running dry at last, the Captain’s ninth, overstuffed outing both recycles a villain (see Book 4) and offers trendy anti-bullying wish fulfillment.
Not that there aren’t pranks and envelope-pushing quips aplenty. To start, in an alternate ending to the previous episode, Principal Krupp ends up in prison (“…a lot like being a student at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School, except that the prison had better funding”). There, he witnesses fellow inmate Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) escape in a giant Robo-Suit (later reduced to time-traveling trousers). The villain sets off after George and Harold, who are in juvie (“not much different from our old school…except that they have library books here.”). Cut to five years previous, in a prequel to the whole series. George and Harold link up in kindergarten to reduce a quartet of vicious bullies to giggling insanity with a relentless series of pranks involving shaving cream, spiders, effeminate spoof text messages and friendship bracelets. Pilkey tucks both topical jokes and bathroom humor into the cartoon art, and ups the narrative’s lexical ante with terms like “pharmaceuticals” and “theatrical flair.” Unfortunately, the bullies’ sad fates force Krupp to resign, so he’s not around to save the Earth from being destroyed later on by Talking Toilets and other invaders…
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-17534-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
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