A smart romp that sets the stage for worlds of future adventures.
To save their world—and countless others—humans will have to be much better.
Delegates of the Multiverse Allied Council are at a loss for what to do with Earth, a Dimension14 planet in such dire condition that its inevitable collapse will likely affect other dimensions. A diverse group of seventh graders from Conroy Middle School are the answer, whether they know it yet or not. On a class trip to the NASA research center where new kid Dev Khatri’s dad works, Dev and his marching band friends, Maeve Greene, Lewis Wynner, Isaiah Yoon, and Tessa Hawthorne-Scott (convincingly imitating her twin sister on a dare), find themselves detoured by a quiver, the sort of seismic incident that has become a new normal on an unrecognizably polluted Earth. An impromptu jam session and malfunctioning tech transport the five tweens to Station Liminus, the Council’s headquarters. The apparent demise of Dim8 taught the Council a difficult lesson about intervening in planetary issues when greed threatens the whole multiverse, and Earth isn’t the first planet to suffer malevolent rulers and general ineptitude. But Earth music—in the right young hands—might prove singularly valuable. The politics of interdimensional diplomacy are mostly lost on the five, but with Caprara’s brisk storytelling and smooth juggling of out-of-this-world characters and settings, the situation’s high stakes are easy to grasp, and readers will anticipate how things unfold in the next entry.
A smart romp that sets the stage for worlds of future adventures. (Science fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: May 11, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4823-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: March 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
A very promising kickoff with arbitrary but intriguingly challenging magic.
A middle schooler discovers both up and down sides to being able to foretell the future.
Members of the Cleary clan in alternating generations have always been granted predictive powers on their 4,444th day of life, and Celia has been eagerly looking forward to her first vision—until, that is, it comes and reveals that cute, quiet classmate Jeffrey is slated to die in a hit-and-run. Weighing her horror against her wise Grammy’s warnings that fate is inexorable, she contrives a way to head off the accident…only to foresee another fatal mishap in his future. And another. By the time she’s saved his life five times in a row, she’s not only exhausted, but crushing on the hapless lad. (As, unsurprisingly, he is on her.) Reintgen generally keeps the tone of his series opener light, so even after Celia discovers that there’s ultimately a tragic price for her intervention, the ensuing funeral service is marked by as much laughter as sorrow. The author surrounds his frantic but good-hearted protagonist with a particularly sturdy supporting cast that includes gratifyingly cooperative friends as well as her Grammy and loving, if nonmagical, mom. There don’t seem to be many Cleary men around; perhaps that and certain other curious elements, like a chart listing particular Cleary specialties with names such as Dreamwalker and Grimdark, will be addressed in future entries. Main characters read as White.
A very promising kickoff with arbitrary but intriguingly challenging magic. (Fantasy. 10-13)Pub Date: May 31, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-66590-357-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fun, if messy, thriller that’s not afraid to go straight over the top.
A middle schooler must outrun a cadre of strange individuals while puzzling out the truth of what he is in this science-fiction offering.
Fourteen-year-old Noah Prime longs to live somewhere bigger than his small town of Arbuckle, Oregon, though he is happily involved in motocross—at least until he learns that the course is being torn down to make way for a condo development. This bad news coincides with some particularly strange happenings in Noah’s life, such as a literal (and very confusing) collision he has with Sahara, a girl that he comes to find very interesting. This is followed by his experiencing a brief and total paralysis while arguing with some bullies, which his friend Ogden, who is on the autism spectrum, insists is due to a psychological phenomenon called conversion disorder. The truth turns out to be much more complex, and it sends Noah, younger sister Andi, Ogden, and Sahara on a madcap quest involving aliens, time travel, an erupting volcano, and much more. The adventure is laced throughout with goofy, sarcastic humor, balancing the fantastical and somewhat confusing turns of events. While there is resolution at the story’s end, it also clearly sets the stage for a follow-up. The main characters read White by default.
A fun, if messy, thriller that’s not afraid to go straight over the top. (Science fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: April 11, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5524-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
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