This appealingly atmospheric historical fantasy melds Christianity and magic with conviction; eager readers will hope for...
It’s late winter, 1348, and although William brought peace three months ago by freeing an angel from a deathlike limbo (The Crowfield Curse, 2010), mystery and danger stir again.
Will’s provisions at Crowfield Abbey are meager and physical comforts nonexistent, but he works hard and takes solace in companionship with three friends: Brother Snail, a frail, elderly monk; Shadlok, a glowering fay bonded to William though a curse; and a small, tender, talking animal known as a hob, called Brother Walter because his real name mustn’t be known. Something’s terribly wrong on the Abbey grounds. Walls are cracking, and the church tower crashes to the ground, throwing stone everywhere. While helping a stonemason clear a side chapel, Will uncovers a buried wooden bowl. Symbols and Latin reveal that the bowl ensnares a demon. Raum was once an angel but fell from grace; now he’s escaping the bowl, bent on vengeance against the Abbey and hunting Will’s pure soul. Alchemy to rebind Raum to the bowl fails, and he’s free, placing Will in the monks’ nightmares so they turn on him, burning nearby cottages, wreaking deadly havoc. Walsh’s sensory setting is cold and rainy. Will’s character is likably sturdy; he’s a hero, but a quiet one.
This appealingly atmospheric historical fantasy melds Christianity and magic with conviction; eager readers will hope for another sequel. (Historical fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-31769-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Chicken House/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship.
A young tennis champion becomes the target of revenge.
In this sequel to Legacy and the Queen (2019), Legacy Petrin and her friends Javi and Pippa have returned to Legacy’s home province and the orphanage run by her father. With her friends’ help, she is in training to defend her championship when they discover that another player, operating under the protection of High Consul Silla, is presenting herself as Legacy. She is so convincing that the real Legacy is accused of being an imitation. False Legacy has become a hero to the masses, further strengthening Silla’s hold, and it becomes imperative to uncover and defeat her. If Legacy is to win again, she must play her imposter while disguised as someone else. Winning at tennis is not just about money and fame, but resisting Silla’s plans to send more young people into brutal mines with little hope of better lives. Legacy will have to overcome her fears and find the magic that allowed her to claim victory in the past. This story, with its elements of sports, fantasy, and social consciousness that highlight tensions between the powerful and those they prey upon, successfully continues the series conceived by late basketball superstar Bryant. As before, the tennis matches are depicted with pace and spirit. Legacy and Javi have brown skin; most other characters default to White.
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-949520-19-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Granity Studios
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
Though occasionally heavy-handed, this debut offers a vivid glimpse of the 1960s South through the eyes of a spirited girl...
The closing of her favorite swimming pool opens 11-year-old Gloriana Hemphill’s eyes to the ugliness of racism in a small Mississippi town in 1964.
Glory can’t believe it… the Hanging Moss Community Pool is closing right before her July Fourth birthday. Not only that, she finds out the closure’s not for the claimed repairs needed, but so Negroes can’t swim there. Tensions have been building since “Freedom Workers” from the North started shaking up status quo, and Glory finds herself embroiled in it when her new, white friend from Ohio boldly drinks from the “Colored Only” fountain. The Hemphills’ African-American maid, Emma, a mother figure to Glory and her sister Jesslyn, tells her, “Don’t be worrying about what you can’t fix, Glory honey.” But Glory does, becoming an activist herself when she writes an indignant letter to the newspaper likening “hateful prejudice” to “dog doo” that makes her preacher papa proud. When she’s not saving the world, reading Nancy Drew or eating Dreamsicles, Glory shares the heartache of being the kid sister of a preoccupied teenager, friendship gone awry and the terrible cost of blabbing people’s secrets… mostly in a humorously sassy first-person voice.
Though occasionally heavy-handed, this debut offers a vivid glimpse of the 1960s South through the eyes of a spirited girl who takes a stand. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-33180-7
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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