There is no magic, per se, but the book is otherwise true to the best fantasy traditions for preteens.
Thirteen-year-old twin sisters Valor and Sasha have barely agreed to missions from Queen Ana when the queen herself vanishes—in broad daylight.
As in series opener Prisoner of Ice and Snow (2017), Valor, the narrator, is brave and impetuous—full of ideas that may or may not work—and Sasha, like their father, is bookish and better at diplomacy. Logically, their missions vary. Valor’s is to recapture the escaped Princess Anastasia—whose sinister behavior had previously led to Sasha’s wrongful imprisonment in the dreaded Tyur’ma. Sasha’s mission: reforming that prison. First, along with fellow escaped inmates Feliks and Katia, the girls find a way to release the wrongly held Prince Anatol, Anastasia’s brother. Their world turns upside down when they must turn their attention to finding the queen. Then the plot twists and turns as often as the brave little band of friends twists and turns through secret corridors in, under, and above grand marble institutions and dark alleyways alike. Moscow-like Demidova and its surrounding, cold-climate environs (populated by an all-white cast with Russian names) are brought to life through Valor’s observations. Feliks and Katia bring both subtle humor and questions about class distinctions to the text. References to women as scholars, prison guards, and rulers abound in this thrill-a-minute adventure story, which gracefully recaps Book 1. The end both satisfies and leaves space for a sequel.
There is no magic, per se, but the book is otherwise true to the best fantasy traditions for preteens. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: April 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68119-133-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
Eminently readable and appealing; will tug at dog-loving readers’ heartstrings.
A loquacious, lovable dog narrates the challenges of shelter life as he longs for a home.
Friendly three-legged Chance is the perfect guide to Dogtown, a shelter that houses both warmblooded and robot dogs. In fact, she’s “Management’s lucky charm,” roaming freely without being confined to a cage and leaving kibble for her mouse friend. Life is pretty good. But she still yearns for reunification with her family and, like many of the living pups, harbors suspicion of her robot counterparts, who are convenient and more easily adoptable but lacking in personality. When Metal Head, an oddly engineered e-dog, bonds with a child during a shelter reading program, Chance’s assumptions about heartless robot dogs are upended. As Chance connects with Metal Head, the two make a brief escape into the wider world, and Chance learns a familiar lesson: Everyone longs for a place to belong. Memories of Chance’s happy home loom large in her mind: Easy days with the Bessers, a sweet Black family, were disrupted by a neglectful dogsitter, the accident that cost Chance her leg, and Chance’s flight in search of safety. Chance’s chatty narrative style includes flashbacks, vignettes about fellow shelter pets, and thoughtful observations, for example, about the “boohoos,” or sad new arrivals. The story offers many moments of laughter and reflection, all greatly enhanced by West’s utterly charming grayscale illustrations of irresistible pooches.
Eminently readable and appealing; will tug at dog-loving readers’ heartstrings. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9781250811608
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and...
Catrina narrates the story of her mixed-race (Latino/white) family’s move from Southern California to Bahía de la Luna on the Northern California coast.
Dad has a new job, but it’s little sister Maya’s lungs that motivate the move: she has had cystic fibrosis since birth—a degenerative breathing condition. Despite her health, Maya loves adventure, even if her lungs suffer for it and even when Cat must follow to keep her safe. When Carlos, a tall, brown, and handsome teen Ghost Tour guide introduces the sisters to the Bahía ghosts—most of whom were Spanish-speaking Mexicans when alive—they fascinate Maya and she them, but the terrified Cat wants only to get herself and Maya back to safety. When the ghost adventure leads to Maya’s hospitalization, Cat blames both herself and Carlos, which makes seeing him at school difficult. As Cat awakens to the meaning of Halloween and Day of the Dead in this strange new home, she comes to understand the importance of the ghosts both to herself and to Maya. Telgemeier neatly balances enough issues that a lesser artist would split them into separate stories and delivers as much delight textually as visually. The backmatter includes snippets from Telgemeier’s sketchbook and a photo of her in Día makeup.
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and unable to put down this compelling tale. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-54061-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
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