Savvy fun fit for any universe.
Back on their own planet, a group of middle school friends aren’t done trying to save the multiverse—and the multiverse isn’t done with them either.
After an unexpected detour at the tail end of their previous adventure, Dev Khatri, Maeve Greene, Tessa Hawthorne-Scott, Lewis Wynner, and Isaiah Yoon have made their way back to central Ohio’s Conroy Middle School and their lives on Earth, a Dimension14 planet. But unbeknown to the Conroy Cadets marching band members, Maeve’s doppelgänger, Em, has tagged along, escaping the wasteland universe she’d been banished to. While being home and reuniting with family in a more familiar, less giant monster–filled environment has its perks, the pull for the original five kids—plus Tessa’s twin, Zoey, who resents being secretly replaced in the first book—to return to their multiversal hijinks is strong. Not to mention that Em’s constant plotting to get back in the good graces of her planet-destroying family may mean major threats from before are still at play. The warm rapport and slapstick humor the Cadets share is even stronger in this second series entry, as they’ve matured in their grasp of all things multiverse while maintaining an endearing commitment to middle school concerns. Band practice is just as important as closing interdimensional holes, and if a so-called evil doppelgänger can offer a caring, world-shattering touch when needed, hypercompetitive twin sisters might be able to figure it out too. Ethnicity is largely cued through names.
Savvy fun fit for any universe. (Science fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4825-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
Working in the grand tradition of children’s fantasy, Wexler’s off to a promising start.
Being a Reader comes with significant challenges in this fantasy filled with ever-changing library stacks, enchanted books and talking cats.
Late one night, 12-year-old Alice Creighton stumbles upon her father in conversation with a threatening fairy. Next thing she knows, her dad is off to Buenos Aires on a steamer ship that mysteriously goes down in a freak storm. Now an orphan, she is sent to live with her uncle Jerry, aka Geryon, who happens to have an unusual and off-limits library that harbors a coveted book and creatures that may explain what really happened to Mr. Creighton. There, she meets the boy Isaac, a Reader, who has the power to enter books and interact with the creatures within them, and discovers that she’s a Reader, too. She is also given the opportunity to apprentice herself to Geryon, which she takes in a desperate effort to find her father. Alice proves to be an active and intelligent heroine who adeptly pulls compatriot and rival Isaac out of more than one potentially fatal challenge. Vaguely reminiscent of Harry Potter, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Inkheart all rolled into one, it’s good fun, if a tad light on character transformation and sagging a bit in the middle.
Working in the grand tradition of children’s fantasy, Wexler’s off to a promising start. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: April 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3975-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Kathy Dawson/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Less charming than the opener but does feature a thimbleful of moral quandary at its center.
Armed only with her magical sewing needle, foundling mouse Delphine sets out to confront the cruel rat king in this duology closer.
As vicious rat armies pillage the mouse realms in search of her and her pointy, long-hidden treasure, Delphine finds herself waging an inner war that parallels the outer one. According to dusty documents and other reputable sources, the needle’s good powers can be perverted, but she sees no other way except killing to stop evil rat King Midnight. While struggling with a grim determination to go over to the dark side that sets her at odds with her own fundamentally loving nature, Delphine threads her way along with loyal allies past various scrapes—only to come, climactically, face to face with not only her nemesis, but her own past. Moon stitches in flashbacks to fill out the details of a tragic old love triangle that reaches its fruition here and sews her tale up with a return to Château Desjardins just in time for Cinderella’s wedding and a celebratory rodentine ball in the chandelier overhead, and she leaves a fringe of epilogue hinting at further installments to come.
Less charming than the opener but does feature a thimbleful of moral quandary at its center. (secret codes) (Animal fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: March 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-368-04833-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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