Solid, though familiar, fantasy fare for readers not quite ready for Tolkien.
When adventure calls, a youngster leaves his parents’ llama farm and sets out on a quest.
While shoveling llama poop one day, brown-skinned 8-year-old Dak Evans notices a pale-skinned, bespectacled, purple-haired girl nearby. Lucy, a llama owned by the monks at the temple next door, awakens him that night and leads him to meet the girl, an aspiring wizard named Fenn, but it’s Lucy—apparently a magical creature with great powers—who announces that Dak will need to help save everyone from danger. She tells him of a lengthy war fought over magic stones that were later hidden in the monks’ temple. The Kingdom of Ravenwood has been peaceful ever since. But the stones have been stolen, and so the journey to find them, and the thief, begins. Dak’s grit and yen for adventure have caught Lucy’s eye, and she chooses him and Fenn to be her companions. But it won’t be easy: Their search for the first stone takes them to a den full of fire-breathing dragons. The narrative incorporates common fantasy tropes—teleportation, magic shields—but the overall threat feels too vague to be truly menacing. While the book contains little internal conflict and the worldbuilding isn’t especially original, it has enough action to entice newcomers to the genre. Human characters are drawn as standard cartoon types in the grayscale art, but the dragons are impressive, and Lucy is adorable.
Solid, though familiar, fantasy fare for readers not quite ready for Tolkien. (map, excerpt from Fenn’s creature journal, questions and activities) (Fantasy. 6-9)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780593808542
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2024
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for...
A gentle voice and familiar pitfalls characterize this tale of a boy navigating the risky road to responsibility.
Gavin is new to his neighborhood and Carver Elementary. He likes his new friend, Richard, and has a typically contentious relationship with his older sister, Danielle. When Gavin’s desire to impress Richard sets off a disastrous chain of events, the boy struggles to evade responsibility for his actions. “After all, it isn’t his fault that Danielle’s snow globe got broken. Sure, he shouldn’t have been in her room—but then, she shouldn’t be keeping candy in her room to tempt him. Anybody would be tempted. Anybody!” opines Gavin once he learns the punishment for his crime. While Gavin has a charming Everyboy quality, and his aversion to Aunt Myrtle’s yapping little dog rings true, little about Gavin distinguishes him from other trouble-prone protagonists. He is, regrettably, forgettable. Coretta Scott King Honor winner English (Francie, 1999) is a teacher whose storytelling usually benefits from her day job. Unfortunately, the pizzazz of classroom chaos is largely absent from this series opener.
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for subsequent volumes. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-97044-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Charming.
An assortment of unusual characters form friendships and help each other become their best selves.
Mr. and Mrs. Tupper, who live at Number 3 Ramshorn Drive, are antiquarians. Their daughter, Jillian, loves and cares for a plant named Ivy, who has “three speckles on each leaf and three letters in her name.” Toasty, the grumpy goldfish, lives in an octagonal tank and wishes he were Jillian’s favorite; when Arthur the spider arrives inside an antique desk, he brings wisdom and insight. Ollie the violet plant, Louise the bee, and Sunny the canary each arrive with their own quirks and problems to solve. Each character has a distinct personality and perspective; sometimes they clash, but more often they learn to empathize, see each other’s points of view, and work to help one another. They also help the Tupper family with bills and a burglar. The Fan brothers’ soft-edged, old-fashioned, black-and-white illustrations depict Toasty and Arthur with tiny hats; Ivy and Ollie have facial expressions on their plant pots. The Tuppers have paper-white skin and dark hair. The story comes together like a recipe: Simple ingredients combine, transform, and rise into something wonderful. In its matter-of-fact wisdom, rich vocabulary (often defined within the text), hint of magic, and empathetic nonhuman characters who solve problems in creative ways, this delightful work is reminiscent of Ferris by Kate DiCamillo, Our Friend Hedgehog by Lauren Castillo, and Ivy Lost and Found by Cynthia Lord and Stephanie Graegin.
Charming. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781665942485
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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