Arduous.
Wren Matthews thought she had destroyed the evil Boggen, but he’s back—and now, on Nod, he’s experimenting with tainted stardust…on human subjects.
At the opening of this sequel to A Sliver of Stardust (2015), Wren is having trouble working her stardust. The first few pages quickly recap the fact that she is a Fiddler—one of the few people on Earth who can work magic—and, even more special, a Weather Changer. Soon the pedantic Simon, rival-turned-friend, enters the picture; he will exhibit his prime trait of nerdiness throughout the book, while the character Jack—friend-then-traitor-then-friend-again—continues to smirk and play lame pranks. Wren and friends embark on a cinematic journey that includes spaceships, steampunk-y objects and places, street urchins, catacombs, and scientific laboratories. Civil wars, plagues, Alchemists, and Magicians are thrown into the mix, along with the Outsiders, who want all magic destroyed. And who is orchestrating Wren’s frightening, lucid dreams? A page-turner for those who enjoy lots of action upon a crazy-quilt landscape; a frustration for those who enjoy details, character development, and a logical plot. Stock phrases abound, as in “Take heed,” and “Beware.” Wren feels stirred by a beautiful-eyed boy whose name, Vulcan, causes her to reference Star Trek. Eventually, Simon manages to teach everyone a surprising—make that unbelievable—lesson about tolerance and “animachines,” and Wren has another go at destroying Boggen. The cast is not notably diverse, with little indication that characters are anything other than white.
Arduous. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-229158-5
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
A sympathetic, compelling introduction to wolves from the perspective of one wolf and his memorable journey.
Separated from his pack, Swift, a young wolf, embarks on a perilous search for a new home.
Swift’s mother impresses on him early that his “pack belongs to the mountains and the mountains belong to the pack.” His father teaches him to hunt elk, avoid skunks and porcupines, revere the life that gives them life, and “carry on” when their pack is devastated in an attack by enemy wolves. Alone and grieving, Swift reluctantly leaves his mountain home. Crossing into unfamiliar territory, he’s injured and nearly dies, but the need to run, hunt, and live drives him on. Following a routine of “walk-trot-eat-rest,” Swift traverses prairies, canyons, and deserts, encountering men with rifles, hunger, thirst, highways, wild horses, a cougar, and a forest fire. Never imagining the “world could be so big or that I could be so alone in it,” Swift renames himself Wander as he reaches new mountains and finds a new home. Rife with details of the myriad scents, sounds, tastes, touches, and sights in Swift/Wander’s primal existence, the immediacy of his intimate, first-person, present-tense narration proves deeply moving, especially his longing for companionship. Realistic black-and-white illustrations trace key events in this unique survival story, and extensive backmatter fills in further factual information about wolves and their habitat.
A sympathetic, compelling introduction to wolves from the perspective of one wolf and his memorable journey. (additional resources, map) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-289593-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
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