An imaginative space adventure set at the end of the world.
Two kids escape a doomed Earth to find their parents in Phayre’s middle-grade SF novel.
It’s been five years since Reya learned that the world was going to end. Her scientist father explained it to her and her brother Lux at the breakfast table—how, in a little more than a century, the sun would go supernova and destroy the Earth; how he and their mother would be working on the global Programme to transport humanity’s elite off-world; and how Reya will serve as a teen influencer (or ‘flooncer) to encourage personal sacrifice on behalf of the Programme. When Reya’s parents fly off on the third of a planned 100 rocket ships, she and Lux are left behind to await a later ride as society begins to wither around them. When Reya is invited to cover the latest launch for propaganda purposes, she brings Lux along, and the two discover a horrifying secret: The Government has been lying—the sun will explode in mere months, and the ship whose launch she’s meant to cover, Rocketship 87, will be the final one leaving Earth. The siblings decide to stow away aboard Rocketship 87 rather than stay on their doomed planet, hoping they will finally be reunited with their parents. It is only after takeoff that they realize the extent of the trouble they’ve gotten themselves into: The ship is automated and the passengers are in hibernation, which means there is no food or water to sustain the siblings. Additionally, they have to contend with another stowaway—a government agent who followed them aboard to arrest them—as well as the ship’s powerful and idiosyncratic AI program. As they blast a final message back to Earth warning the public of the sun’s impending demise, the siblings realize that the ship isn’t actually heading for a rendezvous with their parents…in fact, it seems to be heading in the opposite direction.
Phayre brings Reya and Lux’s teenage culture to life with an ebullient lexicon of light-based future slang, including lightsome for good, murksome for boring, gloomsome for sad, and super-lume for great. The jargon does much to sell readers on the swiftly shifting society and Reya as a strong personality. “There were so many murkee bands out there these days, singing about the end of the world in a way that was just so down and depressing,” thinks Reya as she muses about her favorite pop star. “But Aurora? She knew how to raise people’s spirits, and she was light years ahead of her time. She was all sparkly before sparkles even became a thing.” Not all of Phayre’s coinages are quite so brilliant: the hibernation technology is called SLEEP (“the Slumber, Longevity, Energy and Essence Preservation system”) and the automated astronauts are called the CREW (“Cybernetic Robotic Everlasting Workers”). Even so, the combination of an immediately gripping premise, inventive worldbuilding, and two well-rendered protagonists makes for a fun, immersive read. Young readers will undoubtedly wish to return for the further adventures of Reya and Lux, lost in space.
Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.
In Florence’s middle-grade fantasy novel, a young girl’s heart is tested in the face of an evil, spreading Darkness.
Eleven-year-old Lydia, “freckle-cheeked and round-eyed, with hair the color of pine bark and fair skin,” is struggling with the knowledge that she has reached the age to apprentice as an herbalist. Lydia is reluctant to leave her beloved, magical Mulberry Glen and her cozy Housetree in the woods—she’ll miss Garder, the Glen’s respected philosopher; her fairy guardian Pit; her human friend Livy; and even the mischievous part-elf, part-imp, part-human twins Zale and Zamilla. But the twins go missing after hearing of a soul-sapping Darkness that has swallowed a forest and is creeping into minds and engulfing entire towns. They have secretly left to find a rare fruit that, it is said, will stop the Darkness if thrown into the heart of the mountain that rises out of the lethal forest. Lydia follows, determined to find the twins before they, too, fall victim to the Darkness. During her journey, accompanied by new friends, she gradually realizes that she herself has a dangerous role to play in the quest to stop the Darkness. In this well-crafted fantasy, Florence skillfully equates the physical manifestation of Darkness with the feelings of insecurity and powerlessness that Lydia first struggles with when thinking of leaving the Glen. Such negative thoughts grow more intrusive the closer she and her friends come to the Darkness—and to Lydia’s ultimate, powerfully rendered test of character, which leads to a satisfyingly realistic, not quite happily-ever-after ending. Highlights include a delightfully haunting, reality-shifting library and a deft sprinkling of Latin throughout the text; Pit’s pet name for Lydia is mea flosculus (“my little flower”). Fine-lined ink drawings introducing each chapter add a pleasing visual element to this well-grounded fairy tale.
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781956393095
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Waxwing Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A fast and funny alternative to the Wimpy Kid.
Black sixth-grader Jake Liston can only play one song on the piano. He can’t read music very well, and he can’t improvise. So how did Jake get accepted to the Music and Art Academy? He faked it.
Alongside an eclectic group of academy classmates, and with advice from his best friend, Jake tries to fit in at a school where things like garbage sculpting and writing art reviews of bird poop splatter are the norm. All is well until Jake discovers that the end-of-the-semester talent show is only two weeks away, and Jake is short one very important thing…talent. Or is he? It’s up to Jake to either find the talent that lies within or embarrass himself in front of the entire school. Light and humorous, with Knight’s illustrations adding to the fun, Jake’s story will likely appeal to many middle-grade readers, especially those who might otherwise be reluctant to pick up a book. While the artsy antics may be over-the-top at times, this is a story about something that most preteens can relate to: the struggle to find your authentic self. And in a world filled with books about wanting to fit in with the athletically gifted supercliques, this novel unabashedly celebrates the artsy crowd in all of its quirky, creative glory.
A fast and funny alternative to the Wimpy Kid. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: March 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-553-52351-5
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2016
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