The fantasy storyline gets lost in the collision of too many cultures, with appropriation that is both meaningless and...
Following the events of The Spinner Prince (2018), leonine Prince Leo Kahn goes on a quest to find his mother, deep in enemy territory among the Maguar, and save the world.
Accompanied by three of his allies, Stick, Anjali, and Zoya, narrator Leo both seeks his mother and flees his usurping older cousin Tamir, the self-ordained supreme military commander of the Singa Royal Army. Prince Leo is the true heir to the throne, but his cousin wants him dead. On their journey, Leo learns the source of his powers as a Truth Teller—he can summon things from fiction into reality—as well as a startling revelation about his lineage. The prince and his friends attempt to win over the Maguar by warning them about Tamir’s intention to free the sea demon Hasatamura, imprisoned in the Great Mountain, by waging war—it is bloodshed that has the power to release Hasatamura. Everyone will suffer if the prides cannot band together, Leo argues. Laney’s worldbuilding is baroque, leading to a narrative festooned with capitalized jargon. It is also appropriative, with embedded folktales and characters’ names drawn from many different cultures and sources, including Cherokee, Buddhist, and Ghanaian, among others.
The fantasy storyline gets lost in the collision of too many cultures, with appropriation that is both meaningless and confusing. (character list, story sources, author’s note) (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: July 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-70738-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
Facile, but well-stocked with tiny people, odd little twists and narrow squeaks.
A foundling with anger issues takes on a sentient island with the same problem in this loosely linked sequel to The Secret Room (2012).
Certain that he’ll never be adopted like his friend Achim from the previous volume, 12-year-old Karl sneaks away from the orphanage with only a toothbrush and a toy boat for baggage. The latter immediately comes in handy, as Karl runs into a crew of thumb-sized sea nomads who have lost their ship and are eager to return to a certain strange island (which they dub a “continent”) where their children disappeared. Thanks to a magic biscuit, Karl shrinks down to join them and after a short voyage, finds himself on that island. It turns out to be governed by a mysterious Ancient One prone to rages that cause violent storms and earthquakes. Nursing deep feelings of abandonment that tend to express themselves in furious outbursts, Karl can relate. Spinning her tale around sympathetic characters rather than a plausible storyline, Michaelis equips her mercurial protagonist with lots of thoroughly convenient magical and full-size human help. He ultimately finds not only the children (who have been transformed into trees), but also tidy cures for both his anger and the Ancient One’s. In frequent vignettes, Nievelstein focuses on objects and setting rather than cast members.
Facile, but well-stocked with tiny people, odd little twists and narrow squeaks. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: June 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-62087-539-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
A flying start for a series that puts in a strong bid for Magic Treehouse grads.
Two free-range 25th-century children get into and out of pickles while tagging along with their research-scientist parents to various past eras.
In this series opener, a prank involving Hannibal’s elephants and a mouse lands the Faradays in hot water with their employer, the Cosmos Institute. They are consequently sent for punishment to 1648 Prague to educate Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III about fashions in footwear. Instantly bored for understandable reasons, teenage sibs Dawkins and Hypatia fall in with Jan Richthausen, an alchemist who actually can turn mercury into gold—using found technology more advanced than the Faradays’ own. Somebody is meddling dangerously. In sharp contrast to most authors who try their hand at time-travel tales, Seven has plainly thought out consistent and (reasonably) plausible ways for his characters to interact with the past without causing paradoxes or catastrophic changes to the future. Though everyone in every era speaks the same colloquial English and the source of the futuristic devices and substances is never revealed in this setup episode, the author does propel Dawk, Hype and his other lively characters through a rousing multicentury chase that loops back around to close with tantalizing hints of adventures to come.
A flying start for a series that puts in a strong bid for Magic Treehouse grads. (Science fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-62370-011-9
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Capstone Young Readers
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2013
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