Teenager Avery Pirzwick flies around town each night looking for crimes to stop and people to help with his super strength. He wants to do good with these secret powers that have so messed up his life. He’s had to quit wrestling to keep from hurting his opponents, and his parents’ checkbook has taken a hit for damages incurred. When Cherchette Morozov, an odd European woman with powers of her own, offers to help, Avery wonders if she’s his savior. That’s thrown into doubt when he befriends Darla, Sophie and Nicholas, who have their own secrets, and super-intelligent Darla is certain Cherchette is no Charles Xavier of X-Men fame. Soul searching, teen angst and super-battles (with humor) ensue. Cross’s first is a funny teen–super-team origin story…without an awful lot of action. Avery’s sarcastic, self-deprecating narration is a highlight, as is the strange array of superpowers. The characters’ normal, goofy interactions are the focus until the page-turning finale. A good bet for all teen sections—just not all superhero fans. (Fantasy. 10-14)
Pub Date: May 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-525-42133-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Emily’s motives turn out to be little more than a pretext, but the author delivers another clever, suspenseful drama in the...
Vande Velde again traps teenagers inside an authentically depicted arcade game—but here she works twists into the premise that are both amusing and crank up the danger.
As in User Unfriendly (1991) and Heir Apparent (2002), the game, called “The Land of Golden Butterflies,” is manufactured by the shadowy Rasmussem Corp. and is fully immersive, fed directly into the brain through electrodes. Into this game 14-year-old Grace Pizzelli’s big sister Emily has gone; moreover, she has refused to come out and altered the code so she can’t be forcibly ejected. As sessions that run longer than a few hours cause brain damage and death, the corporation desperately turns to Grace to follow Emily in and persuade her to leave. Reluctantly agreeing, Grace discovers to her disgust that, rather than offering the usual heroic-fantasy or science-fiction setting, this digital world has been colored in pinks and lavenders. It is stocked with (supposedly) benign magical creatures and hunky male servitors—in general, it seems designed to cater to 10-year-old would-be princesses. The idyll has gone sour, though, because thanks to Emily’s fiddling, not only have the wish-granting sprites turned nasty, but the game’s governing Artificial Intelligence has changed the Rules—disabling the “Quit” function and forcing both Grace and her already-failing sister to embark on a seemingly hopeless quest with their real lives at stake.
Emily’s motives turn out to be little more than a pretext, but the author delivers another clever, suspenseful drama in the digital domain. (Science fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: July 10, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-547-73850-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2012
In this fantasy-like space-travel trilogy opener, a grieving boy finds his strength in a distant land. Mute since he lost his arm to cancer a year before, Jamie lives with his mother in a Harlem slum. An inheritance from a forgotten relative brings them to a new home on an Irish island, where Jamie hopes to start fresh. Along with new friend Ramsay, Jamie discovers a strange device hidden in an old lighthouse: the Salmon of Knowledge, which carries the boys to the planet Altair. Here, Jamie is not a mute, one-armed child but a hero, the Ui Neill, a descendent of those who saved this world in the distant past. Ramsay and Jamie need to save a beautiful alien girl from the invaders who threaten her city, but they’re only children against numerous warriors. And once Jamie has become the hero, why should he return to Earth, where he’s “a voiceless cripple?” Despite weak dialogue and flat characters, an entertaining adventure. (Science fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-8109-5480-X
Page Count: 372
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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