Saving the world as well as all of its grown-ups sends middle schooler Mars and his buddies between planets as well as dimensions in this podcast-novelization wrap-up.
In a plotline that has a strong sense of “making this stuff up as we go,” Mars completes his escape from the all-child Mars Colony—with a folded-in side venture to an alternate world where everyone he knows has turned creepy and staring—but returns to an Earth that has been set on the path to environmental recovery and worldwide democracy by kids because (not creepy at all) the adults have disappeared. What with plenty of preteen banter, the odd hidden lab or space portal to discover, parent issues to work out, and, best of all, a greatly increased role for the giant fuzzy tardigrades met in previous episodes, there’s plenty for readers willing to go with the flow to enjoy, and, along with frequent locale switches, quick progressions from one crisis to the next keep the pacing snappy. In the end, an arbitrary blanket reset not only restores the grown-ups, but brings the entire story back to the first volume’s opening scene…only in better, improved versions of middle school and the world. Aside from India-born Mars and his loving Mamaji, diversity in the cast is cued mostly by names; there are two significant nonbinary characters.
A fun, if slapdash, journey through space, time, and preadolescence comes to a shiny ending. (Science fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0958-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Walker US/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
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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. 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
Categories: CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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BOOK TO SCREEN
Good has won every fairy-tale contest with Evil for centuries, but a dark sorcerer’s scheme to turn the tables comes to fruition in this ponderous closer.
Broadening conflict swirls around frenemies Agatha and Sophie as the latter joins rejuvenated School Master Rafal, who has dispatched an army of villains from Capt. Hook to various evil stepmothers to take stabs (literally) at changing the ends of their stories. Meanwhile, amid a general slaughter of dwarves and billy goats, Agatha and her rigid but educable true love, Tedros, flee for protection to the League of Thirteen. This turns out to be a company of geriatric versions of characters, from Hansel and Gretel (in wheelchairs) to fat and shrewish Cinderella, led by an enigmatic Merlin. As the tale moves slowly toward climactic battles and choices, Chainani further lightens the load by stuffing it with memes ranging from a magic ring that must be destroyed and a “maleficent” gown for Sophie to this oddly familiar line: “Of all the tales in all the kingdoms in all the Woods, you had to walk into mine.” Rafal’s plan turns out to be an attempt to prove that love can be twisted into an instrument of Evil. Though the proposition eventually founders on the twin rocks of true friendship and family ties, talk of “balance” in the aftermath at least promises to give Evil a fighting chance in future fairy tales. Bruno’s polished vignettes at each chapter’s head and elsewhere add sophisticated visual notes.
Ultimately more than a little full of itself, but well-stocked with big themes, inventively spun fairy-tale tropes, and flashes of hilarity. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: July 21, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-210495-3
Page Count: 672
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2015
Categories: CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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