Highly entertaining.
Princess Alyssandra works feverishly to protect an innocent boy while figuring out who’s been stealing magical creatures from her father’s menagerie.
Bored by her tutor’s genealogy lesson, Alyssandra—called Lyss—becomes distracted by the sight of a horse-drawn cart. Her uncle Raff, who travels the world searching for unusual creatures, has sent his most wonderful contribution yet: a griffin. Lyss notices a boy named Devin sneaking into the menagerie with the griffin. She learns that Devin was once employed by a cruel man who sold Tam to Uncle Raff but that he ran off in order to stay with Tam; he persuades Lyss to keep his whereabouts a secret from her father, the king. One night, the three of them observe two strange men sneaking around the castle grounds by moonlight; the next day, an amphisbaena—a two-headed, lizardlike creature—disappears from the menagerie. Lyss considers confiding in her father, but she prefers to present him with “a neat solution to a mystery rather than a problem he’d have to untangle”—a decision she may come to regret. Though this fast-moving, suspenseful tale takes place over the course of just a few days, it packs in a dazzling array of intriguing characters, both humans and mythological beasts. Laced with humor, the narrative raises thought-provoking philosophical questions as Lyss wrestles with ethical dilemmas. Català’s lively artwork complements the text; Lyss appears brown-skinned, while Devin is pale-skinned.
Highly entertaining. (encyclopedia of magical beasts) (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: March 11, 2025
ISBN: 9781682637661
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Peachtree
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
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
An engaging, puzzle-centered page-turner.
A tween enters into a high-stakes and high-rewards hunt for a life-changing treasure.
After years of financial instability, and moving from place to place with her mother, Everly “Benny” Benedict, 12, is poised to come into a large inheritance from her great-great-great-great-great-grandmother, Evelyn “Sparrow” Terry of Greenport, Long Island—but only if Benny can solve Evelyn’s riddles and find a mysterious island within the deadline, less than two weeks away. If she fails, Benny will lose the entire estate. As the pressure mounts, Benny and her newly acquired Greenport friends, Zara and Ryan, unravel clues tied to a rare Blood Orange Moon, a deadly 1825 Yellow Fever epidemic, and family connections spanning generations; in addition, events from Evelyn’s timeline shed light on the present day. Incorporating text messages, the young detectives’ notes, and 19th-century newspaper articles, journal entries, and letters, Calonita deftly transitions between the past and the present. Greenport is rich in magical elements that gradually play a larger and larger role in the plot, setting this book apart from other inheritance treasure-hunt stories and creating an added layer of interest. Severe weather phenomena and other challenges contribute to the building tension. The worldbuilding contains several unexplained developments, and the book ends on a frustratingly major cliffhanger, but this series opener is clearly setting up for a sequel in which more answers will hopefully be forthcoming. Main characters are cued white.
An engaging, puzzle-centered page-turner. (Fantasy adventure. 8-12)Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9781728277035
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Sourcebooks Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
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