Lighthearted and conspiratorially didactic; an agreeable romp toward adulthood.
In this middle-grade novel, a teenager journeys to a Tolkien-inspired fantasy land to act as its hero.
On the day before his 13th birthday, Toby Baxter looks out the classroom window and sees what appears to be a hobbit. Toby is into comic books and Marvel movies, not literary fantasies like Tolkien’s The Hobbit and C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Still, when he wakes at night to find a middle-aged man named Author in his room, he can’t help following him through the closet and into his own adventure. Toby is transported to a world where his coming is foretold and he is known as a hero. There is a magic sword encased in rock, inscribed “I.C.E. Call Toby Baxter.” The hobbit Toby saw turns out to be an elf wearing hairy boots. The elves are at war with the trolls, and though they try to live normal lives (eating large meals and playing Australian rules football), another crisis has arisen in this long conflict. Can Toby lead his new friends to victory or will Clygon, Tribal Chief of the trolls, steal his power? Through his actions, what sort of hero does Toby aspire to be? Wright employs a jocose narrative style, telling the story from Toby’s perspective (third person, past tense) but with sporadic authorial asides: “Every sound startled him. Every birdcall caused him to duck—did he just step into a pun?—until he finally relaxed.” Toby is a typical middle-class American teen who carries much of his real-world personality into the fantasy setting. He is quick to suspend disbelief yet never entirely unaware of reality. Though fired by determination and assailed by doubts, he remains happy-go-lucky and too easily distracted by food. Wright reimagines stock fantasy characters (elves, trolls, gnomes) to be more everyday in their outlooks, less a product of quest narrative requirements. While there are perhaps too many elven characters with too little to distinguish them, their society as a whole has more personality than most. The story moves at a good pace, albeit with plenty of asides, and offers a laudable twist (a Star Wars–esque “don’t give in to the dark side”). Young fantasists will enjoy having their eyes opened.
Lighthearted and conspiratorially didactic; an agreeable romp toward adulthood.Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-66784-963-8
Page Count: 192
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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