Slice-of-life exploits mostly for fans of the first.
The Qwikpick Adventure Society files another official report on its members’ derring-do.
In their previous adventure, Lyle, Marilla and Dave visited the poop fountain just before the Crickenburg sewage plant was updated; that was one smelly escapade. Now, when they hear an electrician speak of a rat with a human face at the Bent Mountain Biological Station, they think they’ve found their next expedition. However, transportation is an issue, and their parents would never approve. They sign up for a rec-center trip to a hotel near Bent Mountain and make their way on foot to the station, which is closed for the season. When things go awry and all is revealed, Marilla’s strictly religious parents forbid her from participation in the Qwikpick Adventure Society. Could this really be the end of the society (and Lyle’s budding romance with Marilla)? Set in the year 2000 and presented as a typewritten report by Lyle, Angleberger’s second tale in a trilogy is less engaging and much less amusing than his Origami Yoda series. (The trilogy’s first volume also predates the folded-paper sage, having been originally published pseudonymously in 2007.) However, narrator Lyle and his friends are just as realistic as their origami-folding counterparts, and their adventure is much more true to life. Final art not seen.
Slice-of-life exploits mostly for fans of the first. (Adventure. 9-12)Pub Date: April 21, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4197-1489-4
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2015
An exploration of devotion and finding one’s voice.
A young vocalist with a divine gift has a crisis of faith.
Elissa, a 12-year-old Singer with a mane of blond curls, has a special ability: She can channel the goddess Caé through song and create miracles. With her Composer, Lucio, she travels through the war-torn lands, helping to repair and heal, all while spreading the love of the Goddess. Only allowed to sing, Elissa secretly begins to compose her own songs and discovers that they hold immense power. When the two warring kingdoms of Basso and Acuto learn of Elissa’s abilities, they each hope to weaponize her talents to ensure their own victories. While Elissa wants the war to end, she knows that Caé wouldn’t want her to use her talents for destructive purposes, leaving her to ruminate over the Goddess’ true intentions for her. Bakewell’s medieval-tinged fantasy draws heavily on religious themes, exploring the struggle of having faith in the unseen. Music factors prominently throughout, with the text relying heavily on musical terminology (even using quarter rests for scene breaks); a glossary may have been helpful for those less acquainted with their meaning. At times, Elissa, with her wide-eyed innocence and Pollyanna-ish spirit, can feel a bit facile and without nuance. Elissa and Lucio are default White; secondary and minor characters are diverse in skin tone and sexuality.
An exploration of devotion and finding one’s voice. (author’s note) (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: April 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4889-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Packs a powerful punch.
Sometimes you must risk everything to find out who matters.
Tully has her mother’s nose and auburn hair—and even her mother’s maiden name as her given name. Tully is also athletic and competitive like her mother. She’s been swimming competitively since she was 6, and now, at 12, she’s encouraged by her mother to be the youngest person ever to swim across Lake Tahoe. But then Mom stops taking her meds, begins exercising obsessively, and suddenly leaves without saying goodbye. Seeing Dad “swallowed up / in the glow of his computer screen,” Tully decides that if she succeeds in swimming across Lake Tahoe, her mother will come back, “Because I am a winner / and I can do HARD THINGS.” Tully trains in secret, and early one July morning, she sets out across the lake with her best friend, Arch, kayaking alongside her. Laid out in parts titled “Hour One,” “Hour Two,” and so on, this accessible but sometimes overly obvious story pulls readers into the heart of a grueling 12.1-mile swim. As Tully struggles mentally with the confusion and guilt brought on by her mother’s departure and she thrashes her way across a suddenly stormy lake while Arch yells at her to quit, she comes to an honest assessment of herself—and her mother. The varied and creative layout of the text adds an interesting component to the free-verse, present-tense narrative, told from Tully’s first-person point of view. Characters read white.
Packs a powerful punch. (Verse fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781665935067
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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