A memorable fantasy world hampered by sketchily drawn characters and stereotypical elements.
Irish and Islamic mythologies collide as teenagers protect a Minnesota creek from hostile magic in this YA novel.
After 14-year-old Wendy Adair’s father dies in Iraq, her brother is arrested and her unreliable mother leaves for parts unknown. Wendy moves in with her Aunt Mary, Uncle Craig, and 14-year-old cousin Ben Preston, a nerdy boy who’s obsessed with a recent news event: A mysterious vandal has left 100 dead mussels in Minnehaha Creek. Ben is reluctant to let Wendy into his investigation, but then she meets a number of fantasy creatures, including a very attractive kelpie and two genies. Ben’s friends include Marion Werling, a socially awkward robotics aficionado, and Oliver, a Middle Eastern biology expert with a misogynistic streak; together, the boys make up the River Rangers, a team that’s dedicated to protecting Minnehaha Creek from malevolent supernatural beings. Through Oliver’s knowledge of Islamic legends, the Rangers infer that the genies are searching for a set of perfect, immensely valuable pearls. But Wendy soon realizes that they aren’t just focused on that item—they’re also looking for her. This environmentalist tale is peppered with likable magical creatures, including the charming, morally gray kelpie Cathal Corkin. Debut author Faust’s blending of Islamic and Irish traditions will leave many readers wanting to learn more about this fantasy world. However, Wendy’s feelings about her family situation are given only surface treatment, leaving her feeling underdeveloped as a character. Her constant dismissal of nerdiness and computer know-how also feels out of place for a modern teenager. In addition, the novel sometimes presents problematic stereotypes of the Middle East; for example, narrator Wendy instantly dislikes Oliver due to “some family history,” because her mother “mistrusted all Arabs or Mideasterns or whatever, claiming they were all terrorists”—a clumsy and uncomfortable take.
A memorable fantasy world hampered by sketchily drawn characters and stereotypical elements.Pub Date: June 6, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68201-062-4
Page Count: 164
Publisher: North Star Press of St. Cloud
Review Posted Online: June 6, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Tame and thoughtful portraits of our friends in the wild.
A light collection of poems about animals.
In her debut book of verse, Burrelli, a former teacher of foreign languages, assembles 26 poems extolling the virtues of creatures real and imagined. Using the alphabet as a structural guide for her subjects, she offers a menagerie of beasts, ranging from the kingly Lion and alphabet-closing Zebra to the veritably unknown termite-like Xylophage and unsavory Vulture. As the work’s title implies, the author aims to capture each creature’s essence, which she does with wit and aplomb, often with the animal speaking for itself. “Cattitude” and “Stage Fright” offer particularly captivating portrayals of the cat and rooster, respectively. The cat observes, “I find it suitable, / To be inscrutable,” a sentiment exemplified by felines the world over. In “Stage Fright,” the rooster reveals that his crowing not only heralds the break of day but, in fact, causes it: “I summon the sun and make him rise!” He then admits his deep fear that one morning the sun may ignore his plea: “My entire reputation is at stake, / If the incantation that I make, / Doesn’t cause the day to break.” This touching insight also provides an entertaining example of personification, with which Burrelli experiments throughout the text. Though the poems, accompanied by pen-and-ink drawings by the author, are generally cute and comprehensible (at times, even vaguely recalling James Thurber), the prosody could be much tighter, with meter often sacrificed in the service of forced rhyme. Young listeners, however, aren’t likely to care, and adult animal lovers may overlook the stylistic shortcomings in the face of the endearing content.
Tame and thoughtful portraits of our friends in the wild.Pub Date: Nov. 23, 2005
ISBN: 0-595-37023-3
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Any moral that may be gleaned from the tangled narrative is buried in confusion. (Fantasy. YA)
A convoluted fantasy offering a series of morals about justice, mercy, human treatment of animals and human treatment of other humans.
A cluster of animals have been educated by a World War II veteran and his activist wife. The animals, a now-vegetarian mix of carnivores, herbivores and omnivores, live in harmony on Cloudburst Mountain. Following their scriptures (the Bible, Animal Farm and judgments such as “Humans Are Evil”), they plan for the day when they will kill all the humans and rule the world. The tale follows the adventures of their coyote prophet Justice and human ally Cody as they travel the United States preparing other animals for “The Rebellion.” Though they meet mostly repellent, violent humans and mistreated animals, they also encounter enough well-meaning, victimized humans to make Cody question his alliance with the cause of human genocide. Meanwhile, the grandson of the original human missionaries to the animals threatens the entire endeavor as he plans to mine the mountain for uranium. Ultimately, the animals succeed in murdering the vast majority of the human race, giving them hope for a shining new day. This overly complex tale is dense with purple prose and far too many extraneous characters–for example, Gordon “Raindance” Fell, the Shadow Shaman of the Pokihallah tribe; and Forest Victor, who appears for the first time late in the story, saying of his never-mentioned-before dead wife, “if only her hatred of the evil deeds of the baby seal killers hadn’t drawn her and her cameras into a combative stance.”
Any moral that may be gleaned from the tangled narrative is buried in confusion. (Fantasy. YA)Pub Date: June 21, 2006
ISBN: 0-595-39274-1
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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