Entertaining and action-packed.
Jack Blank’s stretchy blue sidekick, Allegra, has a starring role in this graphic tale of interstellar chicanery and errant parents.
Making free use of pop-culture references in this second series entry, Myklusch sends Jack and Allegra from the Imagine Nation through “space…the fatal frontier” in search of a final message from her long-lost mother. Cranking up the suspense by placing much of the action on a planet that will be destroyed by a supernova in three days’ time, the author chucks in battles, betrayals, and a villain’s scheme to unleash a fresh wave of the terrifying, predatory Rüstov before retiring to (as he puts it) “a galaxy far, far away.” Jack and his own reformed bad guy father also start to rebuild their relationship. Using insets and overlaps to sustain the headlong pacing, Orlando fills his graphic panels with a broadly varied assortment of anthropomorphic, Star Trek–style aliens. As she goes on to stretch herself (literally and figuratively) to the utmost to save her friend from both the supernova and a parasitic Rüstov, Allegra also battles an adversary—green-skinned Bekanti, who’s motivated by religious convictions. The thematic conflict between belief in self and belief in higher powers adds some nuance to the conventional good vs. evil trope. Readers will come away appreciating Allegra’s fortitude, marveling at her superpowers, and applauding her eventual success in reclaiming her family’s legacy.
Entertaining and action-packed. (Graphic fantasy. 10-13)Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2026
ISBN: 9781665928212
Page Count: 296
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK TO SCREEN
This can’t be the last we ever hear of the Legendary Alston Boys of the purely surreal Logan County—imaginative,...
Can this really be the first time readers meet the Legendary Alston Boys of Logan County? Cousins and veteran sleuths Otto and Sheed Alston show us that we are the ones who are late to their greatness.
These two black boys are coming to terms with the end of their brave, heroic summer at Grandma’s, with a return to school just right around the corner. They’ve already got two keys to the city, but the rival Epic Ellisons—twin sisters Wiki and Leen—are steadily gaining celebrity across Logan County, Virginia, and have in hand their third key to the city. No way summer can end like this! These young people are powerful, courageous, experienced adventurers molded through their heroic commitment to discipline and deduction. They’ve got their shared, lifesaving maneuvers committed to memory (printed in a helpful appendix) and ready to save any day. Save the day they must, as a mysterious, bendy gentleman and an oversized, clingy platypus have been unleashed on the city of Fry, and all the residents and their belongings seem to be frozen in time and place. Will they be able to solve this one? With total mastery, Giles creates in Logan County an exuberant vortex of weirdness, where the commonplace sits cheek by jowl with the utterly fantastic, and populates it with memorable characters who more than live up to their setting.
This can’t be the last we ever hear of the Legendary Alston Boys of the purely surreal Logan County—imaginative, thrill-seeking readers, this is a series to look out for. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-46083-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Versify/HMH
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
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