Womack works familiar fantasy elements into a tale with a distinctly penumbral atmosphere for his debut. The titular MacGuffin is an ancient, semi-animate tome that guards the gateway between this world and a nebulous but plainly horrible Other. For centuries in the keeping of the de la Zouche family, descendants of Merlin and Vivien, it had been hidden away on the grounds of Oldstone Manor (now a dreary boarding school) after one keeper used its power for evil—but the time has come to fulfill a prophecy by cleansing it with the blood of a “maiden.” The onus falls on innocent young Edward Pollock, a student with uncommon sensitivity to the supernatural world and a penchant for very vivid dreams. Suddenly, Edward finds himself in a desperate struggle to understand what’s going on, to resist the malicious influences of the volume that has been thrust into his hands, and most of all to keep it away from Lady Anne de la Zouche, a beautiful, arrogant witch. The author fills out the plot with plenty of captures, escapes, betrayals and revelations, tucks in encounters with luridly sinister magical creatures and after a muddled climax leaves the door open for future episodes. Fans of Jenny Nimmo’s Charlie Bone series and similar dark-flavored fare will be drawn in. (Fantasy. 11-13)
Pub Date: March 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-59990-201-2
Page Count: 225
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2008
Cadnum follows up Starfall: Phaeton and the Chariot of the Sun (2004) with another myth inspired by Ovid’s version, but woodenly recast as a novel. Freely changing details, he opens with the great musician’s rescue of a baby girl left out on a hillside to perish, closes not with Orpheus’s violent death, but a soul-restoring discovery that Princess Eurydice is not entirely lost to him, and in between, takes him from the giddy heights of romance to Hades’s sunless realm. Written in formal cadences—“The thought of poetry was so much long-cold ash to him, and the memory of song was bitter”—and divided into numerous short chapters, the tale includes encounters with Charon and Cerberus, the enigmatic Pluto (he goes by both Greek and Roman names here) and a strangely content Sisyphus. But the human figures are sketchier than the immortal ones, and unlike his listeners, Orpheus seems oddly unmoved by his music. Readers too will be unmoved, and will likely prefer such shorter versions as the one by Paule Du Bouchet with Fabian Negrin’s otherworldly illustrations (2004), or Charles Mikolaycak’s sensual rendition (1992). (Mythology. 11-13)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-439-54535-8
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2006
Using baseball as a guide for dating, Beam, in his U.S. debut, hits a grand-slam. When seventh-grader Darcy Spillman becomes smitten with beautiful and popular Danalda Chase, he hopes to “get to first base” with her. Of course, first he has to ask her out, and Darcy isn’t sure Danalda even knows he exists. Normally, Darcy would turn to his Grandpa Spillman for advice, but Grandpa is showing the early signs of Alzheimer’s. Instead, he turns to the new girl, Kamna, who suggests that Darcy should try out for the Cheetahs, his middle school’s baseball team. That would certainly win Danalda’s favor. Unfortunately, when the two finally go out, Danalda lives up to her reputation of being superficial, leaving Darcy unimpressed. It turns out that it’s Kamna he’d rather be with. Using baseball terms as his chapter headings, followed by definitions, Beam has managed to write a story that is fresh, funny and appealing to lovers and lovers of baseball, both male and female. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-525-47578-8
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2006
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