Their last assignment reveals tantalizing clues about Gertie’s past and the war that stranded her on the Skudark, leaving...
A 12-year-old girl gets a very strange job in this new fantasy.
Gertie Milk awakens on a peculiar coast suffering amnesia. She determines her name through a label sewn onto her gown but doesn’t have long to contemplate it. An encounter with a terrifying creature sends her running until a man who calls himself the Keeper of Lost Things, or Kolt, finds her. Turns out the creature is a gentle example of a species now extinct on Earth…and the island is not quite on Earth. Kolt’s explanations are never straightforward, but Gertie is a practical girl who wants answers. Their rapport is quick and witty, their personalities strong and quirky. Gertie learns that she is a Keeper, too. Together, they time travel to return lost items for the good of humankind, as directed by the B.D.B.U., a book containing the knowledge of the world. This is just the start of philosophical discussions that cover time, the value of life, the transformation of death, the importance of progress, and the danger posed by the Losers, a band that’s trying to eradicate knowledge. Lest the battle for the fate of humankind get too dire, it’s all balanced by fantastic encounters with extraordinary characters, human and not, in the most vivid settings. For all its modern themes, it feels very old-fashioned, with voice reminiscent of mid-20th-century British fantasy that will have readers seeing Gertie and Kolt as white.
Their last assignment reveals tantalizing clues about Gertie’s past and the war that stranded her on the Skudark, leaving readers waiting breathlessly for the next volume. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-448-49458-6
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship.
A young tennis champion becomes the target of revenge.
In this sequel to Legacy and the Queen (2019), Legacy Petrin and her friends Javi and Pippa have returned to Legacy’s home province and the orphanage run by her father. With her friends’ help, she is in training to defend her championship when they discover that another player, operating under the protection of High Consul Silla, is presenting herself as Legacy. She is so convincing that the real Legacy is accused of being an imitation. False Legacy has become a hero to the masses, further strengthening Silla’s hold, and it becomes imperative to uncover and defeat her. If Legacy is to win again, she must play her imposter while disguised as someone else. Winning at tennis is not just about money and fame, but resisting Silla’s plans to send more young people into brutal mines with little hope of better lives. Legacy will have to overcome her fears and find the magic that allowed her to claim victory in the past. This story, with its elements of sports, fantasy, and social consciousness that highlight tensions between the powerful and those they prey upon, successfully continues the series conceived by late basketball superstar Bryant. As before, the tennis matches are depicted with pace and spirit. Legacy and Javi have brown skin; most other characters default to White.
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-949520-19-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Granity Studios
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
Though occasionally heavy-handed, this debut offers a vivid glimpse of the 1960s South through the eyes of a spirited girl...
The closing of her favorite swimming pool opens 11-year-old Gloriana Hemphill’s eyes to the ugliness of racism in a small Mississippi town in 1964.
Glory can’t believe it… the Hanging Moss Community Pool is closing right before her July Fourth birthday. Not only that, she finds out the closure’s not for the claimed repairs needed, but so Negroes can’t swim there. Tensions have been building since “Freedom Workers” from the North started shaking up status quo, and Glory finds herself embroiled in it when her new, white friend from Ohio boldly drinks from the “Colored Only” fountain. The Hemphills’ African-American maid, Emma, a mother figure to Glory and her sister Jesslyn, tells her, “Don’t be worrying about what you can’t fix, Glory honey.” But Glory does, becoming an activist herself when she writes an indignant letter to the newspaper likening “hateful prejudice” to “dog doo” that makes her preacher papa proud. When she’s not saving the world, reading Nancy Drew or eating Dreamsicles, Glory shares the heartache of being the kid sister of a preoccupied teenager, friendship gone awry and the terrible cost of blabbing people’s secrets… mostly in a humorously sassy first-person voice.
Though occasionally heavy-handed, this debut offers a vivid glimpse of the 1960s South through the eyes of a spirited girl who takes a stand. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-33180-7
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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