A strong opening to a children’s fantasy series.
In a land of prophecy and magic, a young boy proves that individuals still have a choice in Barr’s (Grasshopper in the Ant Hill, 2011) children’s fantasy tale, the first in a planned series.
Orphaned Brannoch has grown up hearing the enigmatic Mr. Gern’s heroic tales of Tal Rij, a hero credited with defending the world against the evil tyrant Lord Bedlam and his Iron Order. As a small boy who has trouble facing his own village bullies, he doesn’t expect ever to achieve greatness. But when Brannoch’s sister is killed in her sleep by a shadow creature, Gern rushes Brannoch away from his village and hands him off to Ein Ulani, a skilled sorceress. Brannoch finds himself heading into an unknown future, as adults around him decide his destiny. After he has a fateful conversation with a capable, beautiful girl named Leli, he realizes he must start taking control of his own life. During their talk, he claims not to believe in fate: “That our lives are laid out ahead of time and we’re just going through a set of actions to get to some fixed point?…What would be the point of…of anything?” Later, a monster fighter named Calion also encourages the boy to make his own way in life, and Brannoch soon discovers that, in making his own choices, he may end up confronting the same evil that Tal Rij once fought. The story is reminiscent of David Eddings’ early works, but its focus on individual choice makes it unlike many other fantasy tales, where prophecy often plays an important part. Barr gives the novel’s secondary characters strong personalities, although the novel’s brevity doesn’t allow for extensive character development. The conclusion, with its slightly rushed final battle, leaves room for the story to grow in later installments.
A strong opening to a children’s fantasy series.Pub Date: April 29, 2013
ISBN: 978-0615732817
Page Count: 196
Publisher: Doghouse Reilly Studios
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
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The greening of Dr. Seuss, in an ecology fable with an obvious message but a savingly silly style. In the desolate land of the Lifted Lorax, an aged creature called the Once-ler tells a young visitor how he arrived long ago in the then glorious country and began manufacturing anomalous objects called Thneeds from "the bright-colored tufts of the Truffula Trees." Despite protests from the Lorax, a native "who speaks for the trees," he continues to chop down Truffulas until he drives away the Brown Bar-ba-loots who had fed on the Tuffula fruit, the Swomee-Swans who can't sing a note for the smogulous smoke, and the Humming-Fish who had hummed in the pond now glumped up with Gluppity-Glupp. As for the Once-let, "1 went right on biggering, selling more Thneeds./ And I biggered my money, which everyone needs" — until the last Truffula falls. But one seed is left, and the Once-let hands it to his listener, with a message from the Lorax: "UNLESS someone like you/ cares a whole awful lot,/ nothing is going to get better./ It's not." The spontaneous madness of the old Dr. Seuss is absent here, but so is the boredom he often induced (in parents, anyway) with one ridiculous invention after another. And if the Once-let doesn't match the Grinch for sheer irresistible cussedness, he is stealing a lot more than Christmas and his story just might induce a generation of six-year-olds to care a whole lot.
Pub Date: Aug. 12, 1971
ISBN: 0394823370
Page Count: 72
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1971
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