by Robert Marr ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 9, 2012
Marr is that wise and often witty uncle that every young person needs.
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Marr’s collection comprises six short stories aimed at young readers interested in aliens and ghosts (which in turn comprises just about all young readers, one would imagine).
Fantasy writer Marr (Born in the Darkest Time of the Year, 2004, etc.) has done a good job depicting the troubles and traumas that preteens and teenagers face and showing how they might be able to deal with life’s challenges. In “The Ghost of Swiss Castle,” Paul and Mabel Honeysuckle are, like all of Marr’s protagonists, plucky, siblings who eventually, and at great risk, bring comfort to the ghost of mistreated little Malcolm, who couldn’t let go of his hatred. Murray Hawkins (“Haunted for a Time”) is his own worst enemy. Following in his parents’ footsteps, Murray is a Scrooge-in-training. This young lad will not freely lend his comic books but is happy to rent them out for a decent return on his investment. His salvation comes in the form of his doppelganger, an impish version of Murray, who gets him in trouble and thwarts his agenda whenever possible, but drives him to the realization that good deeds can feel as good as hard cash, winning him the same happy salvation that old Ebenezer won. “The Buyer of Hearts” is perhaps the most poetic of the stories, and it’s rife with wraiths. Danny Melton’s father has run out on him and his mother. He’s hurting badly but then discovers that practically all of his schoolmates also have their secret heartaches. Some force, some cabal, is going around buying up hearts, and soon, everyone in Bruce’s school is eager to cash in and in turn become empty, ghostly. Why would you sell your heart? Because then you would not feel, which means you would not ache so. But life demands more from us, and eventually, the scheme fails and people one by one get their hearts back. Marr delights in the heart as metaphor, e.g., “ ‘Besides...when you sold your heart,’ said Sylvie, ‘I don’t think your heart was really in it.’ ” Marr is not just a grown-up, but a monk, so it is not surprising that his kids’ speech is sometimes just a little off. But he does feel for kids who suffer the death of a sibling or the abandonment of divorce or just the general confusion of trying to grow up or of being afraid to grow up. There are morals to these stories, but they don’t hit the reader over the head.
Marr is that wise and often witty uncle that every young person needs.Pub Date: July 9, 2012
ISBN: 978-1475934588
Page Count: 320
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 14, 2013
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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by Christina Soontornvat ; illustrated by Barbara Szepesi Szucs ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 25, 2019
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre.
Ice princess Lina must navigate family and school in this early chapter read.
The family picnic is today. This is not a typical gathering, since Lina’s maternal relatives are a royal family of Windtamers who have power over the weather and live in castles floating on clouds. Lina herself is mixed race, with black hair and a tan complexion like her Asian-presenting mother’s; her Groundling father appears to be a white human. While making a grand entrance at the castle of her grandfather, the North Wind, she fails to successfully ride a gust of wind and crashes in front of her entire family. This prompts her stern grandfather to ask that Lina move in with him so he can teach her to control her powers. Desperate to avoid this, Lina and her friend Claudia, who is black, get Lina accepted at the Hilltop Science and Arts Academy. Lina’s parents allow her to go as long as she does lessons with grandpa on Saturdays. However, fitting in at a Groundling school is rough, especially when your powers start freak winter storms! With the story unfurling in diary format, bright-pink–highlighted grayscale illustrations help move the plot along. There are slight gaps in the storytelling and the pacing is occasionally uneven, but Lina is full of spunk and promotes self-acceptance.
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre. (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: June 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-35393-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
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