Lively and sometimes-surly preteen characters helm this fresh, well-crafted supernatural fantasy.
A girl and her friends experience otherworldly dangers and fantastical discoveries at summer camp.
Twelve-year-old Harmony, who lives with her divorced mom, is grumpy that they had to suddenly move from Los Angeles to a small Northern California town simply because some weird little man had followed her around the mall. Even worse, Mom enrolled her in summer camp, where Harmony is sure misery awaits her. Camp Coho, in the redwood forest near Mendocino, is no ordinary camp. Readers learn this when the camp dog, Guardian Hound MacUmba, silently assesses the campers as they arrive. Observing “tiny threads of rage” floating around Harmony, he silently tells the camp director, Mr. Magnussen, “This one could prove to be difficult.” Rude and sarcastic, angry at her absentee mother, Harmony nonetheless befriends cabin mate Olivia, and gradually, the pair teams up with three boys their age. They discover that they have more in common than camp after Harmony responds to a dare with a forbidden, late-night trek into the forest, followed by her worried friends. Here, this imaginative fantasy by debut author Hendrix becomes a roller-coaster ride into the supernatural. A fierce, massively transformed MacUmba saves the young people from a “draugar” (war dog zombie), and they are transported back and forth in time via ancient “Sentinel Trees.” The quintet subsequently learns that ghosts, goblins, the fae, and the undead are real, and they have magical potential of their own. Throughout, Hendrix adds real-world substance to the plot with a framework of the area’s folklore, history, geography, and ecology. Readers will find hints of what to expect in the upcoming sequel as still prickly Harmony and her friends enter seventh grade while honing the magical skills that will undoubtedly be needed. A brief excerpt from the second installment, introducing a new character, provides an additional teaser.
Lively and sometimes-surly preteen characters helm this fresh, well-crafted supernatural fantasy.Pub Date: April 13, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-578-89147-7
Page Count: 222
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: June 11, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Not for the faint-hearted—who are mostly adults anyway—but for stouthearted kids who love a brush with the sinister:...
A magnificently creepy fantasy pits a bright, bored little girl against a soul-eating horror that inhabits the reality right next door.
Coraline’s parents are loving, but really too busy to play with her, so she amuses herself by exploring her family’s new flat. A drawing-room door that opens onto a brick wall becomes a natural magnet for the curious little girl, and she is only half-surprised when, one day, the door opens onto a hallway and Coraline finds herself in a skewed mirror of her own flat, complete with skewed, button-eyed versions of her own parents. This is Gaiman’s (American Gods, 2001, etc.) first novel for children, and the author of the Sandman graphic novels here shows a sure sense of a child’s fears—and the child’s ability to overcome those fears. “I will be brave,” thinks Coraline. “No, I am brave.” When Coraline realizes that her other mother has not only stolen her real parents but has also stolen the souls of other children before her, she resolves to free her parents and to find the lost souls by matching her wits against the not-mother. The narrative hews closely to a child’s-eye perspective: Coraline never really tries to understand what has happened or to fathom the nature of the other mother; she simply focuses on getting her parents back and thwarting the other mother for good. Her ability to accept and cope with the surreality of the other flat springs from the child’s ability to accept, without question, the eccentricity and arbitrariness of her own—and every child’s own—reality. As Coraline’s quest picks up its pace, the parallel world she finds herself trapped in grows ever more monstrous, generating some deliciously eerie descriptive writing.
Not for the faint-hearted—who are mostly adults anyway—but for stouthearted kids who love a brush with the sinister: Coraline is spot on. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-380-97778-8
Page Count: 176
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2002
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
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