Nonetheless, this all-ages delight deserves rescue and is ideal for classroom (or bedtime) read-alouds—especially if the...
The 40th-anniversary edition of a beloved German fable carries a pointed message that might already be too late.
Momo, a homeless, parentless waif of undetermined age in a nameless European city, is blessed with the gift of listening—“with utmost attention and sympathy”—and adopted by her humble neighbors as a treasured member of their community. Then the sinister gray men arrive, persuading everyone to “save time” by abandoning such idle pleasures as friendship and play. The townsfolk become obsessed with efficiency and shallow consumption, their lives stripped of dreams, beauty and joy. Targeted by the gray men, Momo escapes to the very heart of time to discover the secrets that will rescue her friends. The heavy-handed moral is impossible to miss, but the tale is saved from being preachy by wittily perceptive social criticism and haunting, surrealistic imagery. Despite some mild profanities, this new translation is more graceful and whimsical than the 1985 edition, though lacking its old-fashioned charm; the dark and dreary pen-and-ink illustrations do not improve on the earlier simple line drawings.
Nonetheless, this all-ages delight deserves rescue and is ideal for classroom (or bedtime) read-alouds—especially if the grown-ups pay attention along with the children. (Fantasy. 10 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-938073-14-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: McSweeney's McMullens
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
Dark, seductive, but over-the-top: Characters and book alike will enthrall those who choose to play.
Garber returns to the world of bestseller Caraval (2017), this time with the focus on younger, more daring sister Donatella.
Valenda, capital of the empire, is host to the second of Legend’s magical games in a single year, and while Scarlett doesn’t want to play again, blonde Tella is eager for a chance to prove herself. She is haunted by the memory of her death in the last game and by the cursed Deck of Destiny she used as a child which foretold her loveless future. Garber has changed many of the rules of her expanding world, which now appears to be infused with magic and evil Fates. Despite a weak plot and ultraviolet prose (“He tasted like exquisite nightmares and stolen dreams, like the wings of fallen angels, and bottles of fresh moonlight.”), this is a tour de force of imagination. Themes of love, betrayal, and the price of magic (and desire) swirl like Caraval’s enchantments, and Dante’s sensuous kisses will thrill readers as much as they do Tella. The convoluted machinations of the Prince of Hearts (one of the Fates), Legend, and even the empress serve as the impetus for Tella’s story and set up future volumes which promise to go bigger. With descriptions focusing primarily on clothing, characters’ ethnicities are often indeterminate.
Dark, seductive, but over-the-top: Characters and book alike will enthrall those who choose to play. (glossary) (Fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-09531-2
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Whether you came for the lore or the love, perfection.
Broken people, complicated families, magic, and Faerie politics: Black’s back.
After the tumultuous ending to the last volume (marriage, exile, and the seeming collapse of all her plots), Jude finds herself in the human world, which lacks appeal despite a childhood spent longing to go back. The price of her upbringing becomes clear: A human raised in the multihued, multiformed, always capricious Faerie High Court by the man who killed her parents, trained for intrigue and combat, recruited to a spy organization, and ultimately the power behind the coup and the latest High King, Jude no longer understands how to exist happily in a world that isn’t full of magic and danger. A plea from her estranged twin sends her secretly back to Faerie, where things immediately come to a boil with Cardan (king, nemesis, love interest) and all the many political strands Jude has tugged on for the past two volumes. New readers will need to go back to The Cruel Prince (2018) to follow the complexities—political and personal side plots abound—but the legions of established fans will love every minute of this lushly described, tightly plotted trilogy closer. Jude might be traumatized and emotionally unhealthy, but she’s an antihero worth cheering on. There are few physical descriptions of humans and some queer representation.
Whether you came for the lore or the love, perfection. (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Nov. 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-31042-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
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