An entertaining, if somewhat undemanding, YA adventure.
Reide’s debut YA novel, the first book in her Adventurers series, offers a little bit of conflict and a lot of escapades.
Twelve-year-old Dana, a city girl, arrives in the tiny town of Troll Creek (population 200) to spend two weeks of her summer vacation with her soon-to-be stepsiblings, Amy, 14, and Jack, 11. Neither girl is happy about the visit—or their parents’ impending marriage—and each takes an instant dislike to the other. Soon after Dana’s arrival, the trio sets out on mountain bikes to camp out near an abandoned coal mine. Along the way, Dana and Amy try to outcycle each other, while Jack tries to keep peace with soothing remarks and the sandwiches for which he’s famous: hummus, apple, tomato, carrot and avocado on pumpernickel bread. On the second day, Dana accidentally falls off a cliff and must spend a dark and very stormy night alone in a cave, which, as the twisty plot would have it, leads directly to the old mine. In the mine’s numerous, often collapsed tunnels, the kids manage to reunite, and they also find skeletons, stolen goods and a masked man with a gun. Although readers may find it refreshing to have girls do the fighting and a boy do the “cooking,” the author doesn’t flesh out any of the characters enough for them to be especially memorable. That said, their relationships do evolve, as their survival depends not just on smarts and spunk, but also on cooperation. Middle-grade readers will appreciate the fact that there are hardly any adults around except for the bad guys, who aren’t too hard for the heroes to outwit. The fast pace, too, will keep them eagerly turning pages.
An entertaining, if somewhat undemanding, YA adventure.Pub Date: July 14, 2011
ISBN: 978-0986964701
Page Count: 212
Publisher: MR Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.
In Florence’s middle-grade fantasy novel, a young girl’s heart is tested in the face of an evil, spreading Darkness.
Eleven-year-old Lydia, “freckle-cheeked and round-eyed, with hair the color of pine bark and fair skin,” is struggling with the knowledge that she has reached the age to apprentice as an herbalist. Lydia is reluctant to leave her beloved, magical Mulberry Glen and her cozy Housetree in the woods—she’ll miss Garder, the Glen’s respected philosopher; her fairy guardian Pit; her human friend Livy; and even the mischievous part-elf, part-imp, part-human twins Zale and Zamilla. But the twins go missing after hearing of a soul-sapping Darkness that has swallowed a forest and is creeping into minds and engulfing entire towns. They have secretly left to find a rare fruit that, it is said, will stop the Darkness if thrown into the heart of the mountain that rises out of the lethal forest. Lydia follows, determined to find the twins before they, too, fall victim to the Darkness. During her journey, accompanied by new friends, she gradually realizes that she herself has a dangerous role to play in the quest to stop the Darkness. In this well-crafted fantasy, Florence skillfully equates the physical manifestation of Darkness with the feelings of insecurity and powerlessness that Lydia first struggles with when thinking of leaving the Glen. Such negative thoughts grow more intrusive the closer she and her friends come to the Darkness—and to Lydia’s ultimate, powerfully rendered test of character, which leads to a satisfyingly realistic, not quite happily-ever-after ending. Highlights include a delightfully haunting, reality-shifting library and a deft sprinkling of Latin throughout the text; Pit’s pet name for Lydia is mea flosculus (“my little flower”). Fine-lined ink drawings introducing each chapter add a pleasing visual element to this well-grounded fairy tale.
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781956393095
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Waxwing Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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