Alexander’s debut mixes a comical magical adventure with a light-hearted teen romance within a contemporary setting. Desi, a 12-year-old witch, is upset that her mother, Callida, refuses to teach her magic. Alone for a few days, Desi unearths Callida’s powerful Book of Spells. Unfortunately, Desi’s attempts at self-education prove humorously unsuccessful. A parallel plot involves Callida’s familiar, a female black cat named Devil. In need of a babysitter, Callida changes Devil into a human. Renamed Cat, the loyal familiar becomes a sexy, wisecracking teenager with a fondness for the boy next door, eating human food with her hairless monkey paws and shopping for clothes. The narrative alternates between Cat’s prolonged transformation and Desi’s magical education, which includes the unexpected appearance of her father, a powerful warlock. The sexual tension volleys between Desi’s age-appropriate crush on a boy to Cat’s more mature relationship with her boyfriend. That, plus the childish cover art, will make it difficult to pinpoint a target audience. Still, this is an entertaining, quick read full of romance, shopping and magic. (Magical adventure. 12-14)
Pub Date: April 27, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-375-85854-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 29, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2010
Baker (Big Fat Hen, 1994, etc.) engages in more number play, posing ducklings in every combination of groups, e.g., “Splashing as they leap and dive/7 ducklings, 2 plus 5.” Using a great array of streaked and dappled papers, Baker creates a series of leafy collage scenes for the noisy, exuberant ducklings to fill, tucking in an occasional ladybug or other small creature for sharp-eyed pre-readers to spot. Children will regretfully wave goodbye as the ducks fly off in neat formation at the end of this brief, painless introduction to several basic math concepts. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-15-292858-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1999
In this riveting futuristic novel, Spaz, a teenage boy with epilepsy, makes a dangerous journey in the company of an old man and a young boy. The old man, Ryter, one of the few people remaining who can read and write, has dedicated his life to recording stories. Ryter feels a kinship with Spaz, who unlike his contemporaries has a strong memory; because of his epilepsy, Spaz cannot use the mind probes that deliver entertainment straight to the brain and rot it in the process. Nearly everyone around him uses probes to escape their life of ruin and poverty, the result of an earthquake that devastated the world decades earlier. Only the “proovs,” genetically improved people, have grass, trees, and blue skies in their aptly named Eden, inaccessible to the “normals” in the Urb. When Spaz sets out to reach his dying younger sister, he and his companions must cross three treacherous zones ruled by powerful bosses. Moving from one peril to the next, they survive only with help from a proov woman. Enriched by Ryter’s allusions to nearly lost literature and full of intriguing, invented slang, the skillful writing paints two pictures of what the world could look like in the future—the burned-out Urb and the pristine Eden—then shows the limits and strengths of each. Philbrick, author of Freak the Mighty (1993) has again created a compelling set of characters that engage the reader with their courage and kindness in a painful world that offers hope, if no happy endings. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-439-08758-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Blue Sky/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2000
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