It’s 1907 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and 14-year-old Bing-wing Chan resents and is frightened by having to help his father in his work—digging up bones of the dead to be shipped “home to China for reburial near their ancestors.” Partly a mystery in which strange happenings occur after they unearth a skeleton that’s missing its skull, and when Bing takes a job as a houseboy outside of Chinatown in a home that appears to be haunted, the story also offers young readers a glimpse into the racism and tough conditions faced by Chinese immigrants at the turn of the century. Interspersed old Chinese ghost tales also add a sense of traditional spiritual beliefs. Basing his story on a riot that erupted on September 7, 1907, when “Vancouver’s Asiatic Exclusion League staged a parade to call for an end to Asian immigration into Canada,” the author attempts to bring an important period of history to light. However, Yee’s intent to convey the overriding anti-Asian sentiment of the times comes at the expense of textured storytelling. (afterword, panoramic view) (Historical fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-7614-5242-7
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Exciting, if largely unexplained, adventures fill this Greek mythology–inspired boarding school fantasy.
Can Penelope survive her first, disaster-ridden months at Anaximander’s Academy, where graduates earn gifts from their Greek god patrons?
In this series opener, 13-year-old Penelope Weaver and her twin brother, Paris, eagerly anticipate joining Anaximander’s intellectual and well-ordered Athena Hall, like their parents before them. But the moment they reach the school grounds in western Massachusetts, Penelope—and no one else—ricochets from one supernatural adventure to another, ruining all her plans. To her and her family’s horror, she ends up being assigned to the cheerfully chaotic Aphrodite Hall. More disasters follow. Penelope’s muse is rude and useless, her 12 assigned labors make no sense, Paris (who’s in Athena Hall) grows distant and unsupportive, their parents are disappointed, and her terrifying adventures keep derailing her education. She’s ready to give up and leave—but her roommate, Fifi, becomes a supportive friend, and the Aphrodites prove much nicer and more fun than the Athenas. Maybe if Penelope soldiers on, the chaos might start to make sense? Anaximander’s provides a creatively imagined and well-described setting for the hapless, sympathetic, and resilient Penelope’s adventures. Her evolution from an uber-controlled “Athena girl” into someone more flexible who learns what true friends are is believable and gratifying. While her adventures are compulsively readable, many story elements remain frustratingly lacking in context. The secondary characters lack depth; Fifi reads Black, and her characterization evokes the Black best friend trope. Penelope’s family is cued white.
Exciting, if largely unexplained, adventures fill this Greek mythology–inspired boarding school fantasy. (Fantasy. 10-13)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781665985468
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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