This meshing of romantic classics and modern-day relationships is over-the-top good fun for tween romantics.
When Merrilee enters Reginald R. Hero Preparatory School, she's hopeful that the experience will help her pinpoint her special talent.
BFF brainiac Eliza has science. Younger sister Rory has art. On the other hand, after attending an all-girls school, it's possible that rabid romance-reader Merri will simply be distracted by classes with boys! Especially after English class with magical Ms. Gregoire, where they're reading The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Merri is sure that popular bad-boy Monroe will be her real-life Romeo. Except he turns out to be overbearing and she realizes that actually Romeo might not be so great, and Juliet needs to chart her own course. Maybe Merri's story is really Pride and Prejudice? Is scornful Fielding, the headmaster's son, as misunderstood as Darcy is? He’s swoonworthy handsome but seems to resent the fact that Sen. Rhodes, Merri’s older sister’s future mother-in-law, pulled strings to get Merri and Rory into the prestigious school. In true rom-com fashion, artless Merri creates chaos in her first missteps in romance. A full cast of secondary characters create a chorus and support system as Merri takes charge of her story. Main characters are white, but Merri’s classmates include Korean, Egyptian, and black students.
This meshing of romantic classics and modern-day relationships is over-the-top good fun for tween romantics. (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2860-0
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: March 4, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The Salt trilogy closes with a third generation of children fighting petty but dangerous evils. Hana, a girl from the city's wretched Bawdhouse Burrow, is orphaned when her mother is burned as a witch. Ben grows up far from the city, raised by his grandparents Pearl and Hari in the idyllic village from Gool (2010). When Hana flees the city, she brings with her a terrifying message for those outside its darkness: The Limping Man is coming. He has the terrible power to make people love him even as he torments them, and he plans to wipe out all who stand against him. Since most of the outsiders—Ben's family, the forest Dwellers and "the people without a name"—have mental powers, the Limping Man intends to massacre them. Ben and Hana, along with their allies, must find the Limping Man's secret in order to save their own lives and homes. Ben and Hana’s victories, like those of their parents and grandparents, are local. Even if they do defeat the Limping Man, they cannot vanquish evil from the world; life in the burrows will likely continue to be nasty, brutish and short. The heroes' personalities are defined by their harsh environments, but they reach beyond those limitations. Fantasy heroes who can save only themselves and their loved ones are a welcome change from the usual. (Fantasy. 13-15)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-55469-216-3
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2011
Another fresh and funny outing in a mostly solid satiric series.
Proving that the power of teen love trumps even Heavenly directives, a budding graphic artist hooks up with an ethereally handsome new classmate.
Morning Glory’s miserable life at her clique-heavy high school takes a turn for the better with the arrival of hot, strangely naïve Gabriel DiAngelo. A supposedly chance meeting at the local thrift store escalates into movie dates and breathless snogging. Complications arise with the subsequent appearance of Gabriel’s catty but equally stunning relative Luci DiAngelo, who displays a gift for inciting divisiveness and violence. In the black-and-white art, Morning Glory—dark-skinned and serious-looking in rimless glasses—and Gabriel, with his manga-style features and artfully disheveled blond hair, make a cute couple. In the end, Luci is sent back where she came from. After a climactic revelation (“You had wings!” “Did not.” “Did too! What are you?” “Can’t you guess?”), Gabriel confesses that he’s a Guardian actually sent to help Morning Glory’s friend Julia through some family troubles, freshening up the now-tired guardian-angel-falls-in-love-with-human-ward trope considerably.
Another fresh and funny outing in a mostly solid satiric series. (Graphic paranormal romance. 12-14)Pub Date: May 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4677-0732-9
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Graphic Universe
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
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