Every mythical creature stars in a love story these days. This story’s conceit—a unicorn who is actually a hot Cornish noble from 1511 is made human again and popped into contemporary Portland, Maine, when his life thread is pulled from a tapestry—creates a situation in which unicorn romance actually makes sense. When spunky-but-ordinary high-school senior Tessa rescues Will from his tapestry prison, they must face down Gray Lily, the 500-year-old witch who used Will for her immortality, and deal with the Norn, or Fates, who are annoyed at all these meddling humans. The dialogue is clunky, though, and narrative imperative overrides plausibility (peasant-turned-witch Gray Lily wrote a diary in the 1500s, helpfully detailing all her wickedness and magical prowess, and then lost it?). But it doesn’t matter because the point is that Tessa and Will belong together, and nothing (Fates, evil, 500-year age difference) can withstand their love. Despite the older age of the characters, this is really for the starry-eyed younger teen who stands, riveted, at the Cloisters or the Cluny longing for a unicorn of her own. (Romantic fantasy. 12-16)
Pub Date: Jan. 11, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-385-73891-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
Magic, tennis action, and family secrets are woven into an original coming-of-age tale.
A 12-year-old girl living in a kingdom ruled by a mysterious queen dreams of attaining her sport’s highest prize.
Legacy Petrin lives and works in the financially strapped orphanage in the provinces run by her father and rises early every day to practice tennis with her old racket. After her best friend, Van, excitedly tells her about a scholarship competition for a spot at an esteemed academy and the opportunity to try out for the national championships, Legacy runs away to the city to compete. After winning, she learns there is still much she doesn’t know: The players are not just proficient in tennis, but also have magical skills that they use to their advantage. Legacy befriends Pippa, a knowledgeable girl from an elite tennis family, and acquires a builder, or coach, Javi. With Pippa and Javi at her side, Legacy makes her way through the competition, despite sabotage attempts, learning secrets about her own family along the way. Legacy is a strong character, and the secondary characters also have interesting backstories. The storyline is reminiscent of other dystopian stories, but centering tennis—with lively descriptions of matches that give a strong sense of the sport—is an unusual touch. Most characters are white, although Javi is brown-skinned, and some other characters of color are mentioned.
Magic, tennis action, and family secrets are woven into an original coming-of-age tale. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-949520-03-3
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Granity Studios
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Thought-provoking, as always from Doctorow.
Online gaming and real life collide when a teen discovers the hidden economies and injustices that hide among seemingly innocent pixels.
Anda, a shy, overweight gamer and a recent transplant to Flagstaff, Arizona, is beyond excited when a guest speaker in one of her classes invites her to join in playing a massive multiplayer online role-playing game called “Coarsegold.” With her parents’ approval, Anda joins the presenters’ guild, a group of girls playing the game as girl avatars. Once in “Coarsegold,” Anda—known online as Kalidestroyer—is confronted by another guild member named Lucy, who asks her if she’d be interested in earning “real cash.” When she accepts, she’s pulled into a world of real-money economies where workers “play” the game, garnering items they can then sell for actual money to other players. Doctorow takes a subject that many people probably haven’t considered (unless they’ve already read his For the Win, 2010) and uses the fictional frame to drive home a hard truth: that many of the games we play or items we buy have unseen people tied to them, people who have their own struggles. Through Wong’s captivating illustrations and Doctorow’s heady prose, readers are left with a story that’s both wholly satisfying as a work of fiction and serious food for thought about the real-life ramifications of playing in an intangible world.
Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-59643-658-9
Page Count: 192
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
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