A charming fantasy tale with contemporary elements that may occasionally stretch the limits of credibility.
In Kallinikos’ debut YA fantasy novel, an intrepid elf must foil a plot to stop the production of stories.
Hamilton Cashew, an elf with the power of levitation and a vivid imagination, lives in Blix Largus, a suburb of the city of Literatus. Hamilton studied Creative Arts at the university and hopes to join the Story Weavers, a group of highly skilled elves responsible for story creation in the kingdom. He currently works as a book stacker in the Literatus Library, where he encounters Effluvius Acorn, the general manager of the Story Weaving Factory. Effluvius has a major problem: Despite the factory’s strict controls, a key ingredient in the story weaving process has disappeared, along with the ingredient’s recipe. Effluvius wants to locate the book that contains the recipe and make a replacement batch before the theft is noticed. After a search of the library proves futile, Hamilton suggests finding the wizard who originally wrote the recipe. Effluvius agrees and sets Hamilton on an incredible journey, during which he encounters powerful allies, unlikely villains and a devious plot. The fantasy elements of the story work well, but the modern touches may seem a bit out of place to some readers; Literatus is populated with elves, fairies, pixies and other magical creatures who cast spells, weave stories and fear witches, yet they also have access to computers, watch reality television, and order pizza. However, Hamilton is a brave, likeable hero of impressive ingenuity, and Kallinikos surrounds him with a well-developed supporting cast, including a cantankerous but helpful wizard named Festoon Gregarious. The nicely paced story also offers some clever action scenes, including one in which Hamilton is trapped inside a painting depicting a bullfight.
A charming fantasy tale with contemporary elements that may occasionally stretch the limits of credibility.Pub Date: March 14, 2012
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 231
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 5, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
