Three friends venture into a world of monsters in Duffie’s debut middle-grade fantasy.
Twelve-year-old Lillian and her best friends, Maisy and Katy, decide to go looking for Lillian’s missing sister, Bluebell. It’s been two years since Bluebell vanished, but for some reason, Lillian feels that her sister is now calling to her. With her friends in tow, she follows her instincts to a local beach. There, they meet Jack, a boy their age, and there’s more to him than meets the eye. Although he initially appears to them in human form, they soon learn that Jack is a magical being, capable of shape-shifting. He transports them to the Monster Realm, a parallel world, where they meet all manner of creatures from myth and legend—some friendly, some viciously evil—as they try to track down the elusive Bluebell. As the girls struggle to survive, with Jack’s help, they hear rumors from various creatures that something is very wrong in the Monster Realm. Lillian recalls long-buried memories of her sister that make her wonder if Bluebell is trying to instigate a war between humans and monsters. When the group finally finds her, it’s just the beginning of an adventure featuring more serious problems and graver dangers, as the conclusion lays the groundwork for a sequel. The seemingly endless perils in the Monster Realm and the mystery of Bluebell’s disappearance help keep the story moving swiftly along. The third-person narration gives readers glimpses inside the heads of all three girls, each of whom has a distinctive personality and a unique approach to solving problems. At times, the characters seem unrealistically self-aware, as when Maisy chastises herself after an encounter with a chimera: “Why do I always act before I think? I always do things without considering the consequences.” The deftly handled action sequences, however, overshadow these occasional heavy-handed touches.
A fast-paced YA novel that transports readers to a world filled with magic and peril.
Pub Date: May 19, 2014
ISBN: 978-0984934683
Page Count: 274
Publisher: Roam and Ramble
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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