A smart, funny, exciting fantasy novel for younger readers who love all things magical.
A 12-year-old boy finds himself at the center of a foreboding prophecy in Thompson’s middle-grade fantasy novel.
Ty Baxter’s biggest problems in life are tedious classes, a strict dad, and a gang of roughhousing bullies. With his good friend Jackson by his side—and occasional visits from Streak, a clever crow with a white feather—Ty tries to take his seemingly ordinary life in stride even though each day seems more boring than the last. When Ty sees bullies throwing rocks at Streak, he teams up with Ayslenne—a quiet, strange student dubbed “Magic Girl” by teasing classmates—to save him. This brave act culminates in a flurry of magic in which the unlikely duo is catapulted into Arcania, a fantastical world of people with supernatural abilities, mystifying prophecies, armies of humans-turned-crows, and an evil emperor: Blackthorn. Ty’s familiar world is gone (“He took a deep breath, then stepped forward, reaching out his hand the way Ayslenne had. The moment he touched the shimmering surface, the world around him dissolved into a blinding flare of light”); as if that isn’t stressful enough for a 12-year-old boy, Ty finds himself at the very center of an effort to save the doomed Arcania. There is much for middle-grade readers to love about this fantasy novel; the relatability of the cast, both young and old, is just the beginning. Each character is developed and complex, whether intended to be lovable or detestable, and the relationship between Ty and Ayslenne, which blooms throughout the novel, is funny and sweet. The narrative is fantastically paced, managing to build a world, establish its lore, introduce and develop characters, and kick off an epic series, all while delivering invigorating doses of action and excitement. Ty and Ayslenne’s adventure will effortlessly hook readers and keep them eagerly turning the pages until the very end.
A smart, funny, exciting fantasy novel for younger readers who love all things magical.Pub Date: May 29, 2022
ISBN: 9780995994249
Page Count: 332
Publisher: Inky Cove
Review Posted Online: May 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
Funny and endearing, though incomplete characterizations provoke questions.
An isolated class of misfits and a teacher on the edge of retirement are paired together for a year of (supposed) failure.
Zachary Kermit, a 55-year-old teacher, has been haunted for the last 27 years by a student cheating scandal that has earned him the derision of his colleagues and killed his teaching spirit. So when he is assigned to teach the Self-Contained Special Eighth-Grade Class—a dumping ground for “the Unteachables,” students with “behavior issues, learning problems, juvenile delinquents”—he is unfazed, as he is only a year away from early retirement. His relationship with his seven students—diverse in temperament, circumstance, and ability—will be one of “uncomfortable roommates” until June. But when Mr. Kermit unexpectedly stands up for a student, the kids of SCS-8 notice his sense of “justice and fairness.” Mr. Kermit finds he may even care a little about them, and they start to care back in their own way, turning a corner and bringing along a few ghosts from Mr. Kermit’s past. Writing in the alternating voices of Mr. Kermit, most of his students, and two administrators, Korman spins a narrative of redemption and belief in exceeding self-expectations. Naming conventions indicate characters of different ethnic backgrounds, but the book subscribes to a white default. The two students who do not narrate may be students of color, and their characterizations subtly—though arguably inadequately—demonstrate the danger of preconceptions.
Funny and endearing, though incomplete characterizations provoke questions. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-256388-0
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
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