A mad-dash fever dream of a book peppered with magic, fancy, and just a little bit of soul.
An ill-used imagination conjures up some serious big-time baddies in this charming English import.
It’s bad enough when your sister is the family do-gooder, but now she can perform magic as well? And not just any magic either, since Lucy now has the ability to invent any creature from scratch. When a magic wood behind their home grants Henry’s sister this awe-inspiring gift, he soon learns that she’s in danger from her own creations. The garingay want to steal her away, the yo yitsoo are on the prowl, and dangerous cupcakes are shrinking their victims at a frightening rate. Solving this puzzle means figuring out a way to un-invent the worst of the creatures before Lucy is stolen once and for all. Part of the book’s charm is that it reads like a highly logical stream of consciousness with a bit of dream logic thrown in for spice. Readers hoping for a familiar story arc may find expectations upended by the book’s many quiet passages and repetition. Illustrator Donnelly’s jolly pen and inks, in which Lucy is depicted as light-skinned (implying that Henry is too), reflect the lighthearted goofiness of the writing, even if she has an occasional tendency to take the author’s descriptions as only mere suggestions.
A mad-dash fever dream of a book peppered with magic, fancy, and just a little bit of soul. (Fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: April 24, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-911427-01-8
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Everything With Words
Review Posted Online: Feb. 13, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2017
Despite missteps, this satisfying follow-up will leave readers hoping for more magical adventures with lovable Jax and...
Jaxon and his friends deal with the fallout from the theft of one of the baby dragons in his charge.
As this sequel to Dragons in a Bag (2018) opens, Kavita, the titular dragon thief, introduces elderly Aunty to stolen baby dragon Mo. Thankfully, Aunty knows someone in Queens who can help return Mo to the realm of magic. Meanwhile, and in alternating first-person chapters, Jax is trying to find Kavi and Mo, as Mo’s siblings have grown ill as a result of the separation, as has Ma, Jax’s magical mentor and grandmother figure. Jax again teams up with his best friend and Kavi’s older brother, Vik. A third is added to their crew with “huge” Kenny, “the biggest kid in [their] class.” (Unfortunately, much is made of Kenny’s size, which feels gratuitous and unkind.) Eventually the trio finds Kavi, Aunty, and Mo, who’ve been abducted by a magical con artist. All’s well that ends well when Sis, the powerful guardian of the magic realm, shows up, but readers may wonder why the narrative decides to grapple with her choice not to intervene in injustice in our world. Her argument that human-caused problems are for humans to solve feels undeveloped, especially in the face of a massive injustice like the trans-Atlantic slave trade (mentioned during the climax and at no other point). Jax is black; Vik, Kavi, and Aunty are Indian American (though Aunty has African ancestry as well); and Kenny is white. The rest of the cast is diverse as well.
Despite missteps, this satisfying follow-up will leave readers hoping for more magical adventures with lovable Jax and company. (Urban fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-7049-5
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
Joyful and funny.
Three friends fight an evil developer who wants to tear down the magical library.
What should this trio of friends do during summer vacation? Outdoorsy Kit, a White girl, despairs of her friends, Alita and Josh, both kids of color, she really does. Why do they want to read when they could go to the cemetery and get muddy instead? But in the library, Kit discovers an ability: When she touches certain books, she travels to a magical place. Faith, the Black head librarian, her hair in locs, explains with some surprise that Kit is a wizard. It’s a puzzler, Faith tells her, because wizardry doesn’t typically show up until someone turns 18, and Kit is only 10. Faith wants Kit to keep her wizardry a secret, but good luck keeping the knowledge from Alita and Josh, who eavesdrop. So the friends tag along while Kit learns magic (a significant component of which seems to be librarianship), gains a wizard cloak, and befriends Dogon, the half-dog, half-dragon who lives in the magical library forest. With Josh’s and Alita’s attention to detail and Kit’s natural magic, maybe they’ll be able to defeat Mr. Salt, the pink-faced CEO who plans to tear down the library—if impulsive Kit learns to channel her inner chaos and trust her friends. Playful illustrations complement the witty dialogue, dryly ironic narrative voice, and comical villainy.
Joyful and funny. (Fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5362-1493-2
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Walker US/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
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