One could wish all war stories were genuine fantasies.
A living, speaking doll; magical and folkloric elements; and Nazi terror meld in this novel set in World War II Krakow, Poland.
Karolina is blown by a magical wind from the war-torn Land of the Dolls into the shop and life of Cyryl, the white Dollmaker of Krakow, a lonely, skilled craftsman with magical abilities. Astounded to encounter the enchanting wooden creature, he repairs her and learns of her travails: her homeland, like his, has been ravaged by war and taken over by dictatorial rats who’ve conquered her country and savaged the population. They become steadfast comrades and soon befriend Jewish neighbors, a violinist and his daughter who are increasingly threatened by the worsening Nazi menace. With the situation in Krakow worsening, the Dollmaker and Karolina become ever more desperate. Inspired by Karolina’s ingenious idea, Cyryl magically effects an astonishing transformation of Krakow’s children, enabling them to be smuggled out of the ghetto. It’s an odd tale. Readers expecting the fantastic and magical elements to soften the terrifying depictions of Nazi brutality will be disillusioned: horrors are described, and death pervades the narrative. While Karolina and the non-Nazi human protagonists are sympathetic, the disparate threads don’t jell. Worse, combining a very realistic war story with a fairy-tale one may, unfortunately, suggest to some readers that the nonfiction component isn’t real either.
One could wish all war stories were genuine fantasies. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5247-1539-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
Intriguing but disappointingly derivative; here’s hoping future volumes find a groove.
In this graphic-novel series opener, a girl discovers her father is a Greek god—sound familiar?
When her mother gets the opportunity of a lifetime, Karen must stay with her estranged father, Zed, who lives on Mount Olympus. Upon her arrival, she learns that her father is obviously both affluent and influential, living in a palatial home and serving as both the mayor of the town and dean of her school. At Mt. Olympus Junior High, Karen quickly befriends Dita, Athena, and siblings Apollo and Artemis. When a classmate is turned to stone in the school library and Karen falls under suspicion, she and her new friends must find the culprit. Visually, Moon’s bright and expressive art propels Cooke and Fitzpatrick’s narrative, with tidy stylization and an alluring full-color palette. Karen, however, may be a polarizing character: She can be bratty at times and infuriatingly slow at others. At one point, her friends must practically spoon-feed her the concept that they are gods and goddesses—that their names are taken directly from the pantheon and that they live on Mount Olympus don’t seem to clue her in. Despite the high-interest format, this doesn’t bring enough novelty to set it apart from Percy Jackson. Nearly all the characters present White with the exceptions of Dita, who has a slightly darker skin tone, and assorted unnamed background characters.
Intriguing but disappointingly derivative; here’s hoping future volumes find a groove. (mythology notes, bibliography) (Graphic fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-358-29951-6
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Etch/HMH
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2020
An entertaining and funny take on middle school drama with a light magical touch.
Heidi is a young witch attending middle school at Broomsfield Academy, a boarding school catering to both magical and nonmagical students.
Kids with magical powers must only use those skills for schoolwork, but Heidi can’t always control herself, like when she’s running late for class and needs to get dressed in a hurry. Her obsession with classmate Hunter McCann (aka Hunter McCutie) is threatening to take over her life. Melanie, her roommate and once her hometown enemy but now almost a friend, also has a crush on Hunter, who is actually a really nice boy. Heidi tries to hide her feelings from Melanie, but she pours out her heart to good friends Sunny and Annabelle. She also writes to Lucy, her BFF back home, about her situation. While Melanie is interested in flirting and makeup, Heidi’s closest friends give her good advice: “Just be yourself.” Nevertheless, Heidi keeps using witchcraft: first, growing long hair to attract Hunter (it backfires when her hair grows uncontrollably). She later attempts the love potion spell that inspires the title, hoping to isolate Hunter so that she can have him to herself. However, Heidi soon learns how harmful her behavior was. Readers looking for breezy fare will enjoy this second series installment, which uses varied size fonts, ample white space, and humorous digital grayscale illustrations. Most main characters present white.
An entertaining and funny take on middle school drama with a light magical touch. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2023
ISBN: 9781665937207
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Simon Spotlight
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
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