An entertaining series starter that will appeal to young readers craving more magical school stories.
In this debut fantasy set in Australia, three children with magical powers must locate a powerful amulet before their enemies do.
As babies, Alexandra, Jake and Kian were transported from their home world and brought to Earth, a world in which magic fades in the presence of adults. Raised in an orphanage, the three are adopted into different families by parents who are also from their home world; they’re magical creatures disguised as humans to guard the children. Each child is a royal heir and Stone Bearer chosen to wield the protective magic of one of the four kingdoms in their magical lands. But until they can find the lost Amulet of Hazar and a way to keep it safe from the evil Lord Paragon and his minion, Colt, the children can’t return to their true parents. Along with being enrolled in a private school, which others from their world also secretly attend, the three children train in magic and combat under the tutelage of their guardians. Overtones of Hogwarts are clear, including a playful equivalent of Diagon Alley that even mundane humans can visit and a multiple-choice quiz that sorts the children into four houses represented by mythical animals. But the story takes on too many perspectives—including those of the children, the adults and their nonmagical friends—and there are several holes that astute readers will notice. Why were the children not raised by their guardians in the first place rather than at an orphanage? Why is the green Stone Bearer’s identity hidden from the children (but not the readers)? And if the magical beings from the Land of Four Stones are able to pose as humans and infiltrate the school, why is this important quest being handed to the young Stone Bearers? Still, even with these issues, Farrugia creates an interesting world, and Alexandra in particular is a strong female lead determined to do what it takes to keep both Earth and the Land of Four Stones safe from Paragon’s plots.
An entertaining series starter that will appeal to young readers craving more magical school stories.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1452511511
Page Count: 180
Publisher: BalboaPress
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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