A rollicking, affectionate parody of fantasy role-playing.
Five heroes face their most trying quest yet: surviving middle school.
In the real world of Bríandalör, Albiorix and his band of fellow adventurers thwart evil forces, but, once a week, on Thursday nights, they meet at the local tavern for a game of Homerooms & Hall Passes, their fantasy role-playing escape. With dice and their imaginations, they transform into students who worry about class elections, algebra tests, spirit week, and the dreaded five-paragraph essay instead of magic, traps, and treasure. However, even with all his dedication to the game, Albiorix never could have predicted he and his friends would end up transported by a curse into the world of J.A. Dewar Middle School. Now they must struggle through the final two months of the semester in the lives of their characters or risk disappearing forever. Apart from remarks about pointy ears, shiny hair, and muscles, O’Donnell doesn’t give the characters much physical description, but the cover illustration and naming conventions suggest that both the Bríandalörians and middle schoolers are fairly diverse. Every chapter opens with an excerpt from the Homerooms & Hall Passes rule book, capturing the spirit of their tabletop role-playing game and foreshadowing upcoming encounters. Each adventurer learns a different lesson and grows through their humorous attempts at embodying their game personas. The villain is satisfyingly over-the-top, and his defeat befits the book’s silly sense of humor.
A rollicking, affectionate parody of fantasy role-playing. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-287214-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Highly amusing.
The incompetent parents from The Willoughbys (2008) find themselves thawed by global warming.
Henry and Frances haven’t aged since the accident that buried them in snow and froze them for 30 years in the Swiss Alps. Their Rip van Winkle–ish return is archly comedic, with the pair, a medical miracle, realizing (at last!) how much they’ve lost and how baffled they are now. Meanwhile, their eldest son, Tim, is grown and in charge of his adoptive father’s candy empire, now threatened with destitution by a congressional ban on candy (opposed by an unnamed Bernie Sanders). He is father to 11-year-old Richie, who employs ad-speak whenever he talks about his newest toys, like a remote-controlled car (“The iconic Lamborghini bull adorns the hubcaps and hood”). But Richie envies Winston Poore, the very poor boy next door, who has a toy car carved for him by his itinerant encyclopedia-salesman father. Winston and his sister, Winifred, plan to earn money for essentials by offering their services as companions to lonely Richie while their mother dabbles, spectacularly unsuccessfully, in running a B&B. Lowry’s exaggerated characters and breezy, unlikely plot are highly entertaining. She offers humorous commentary both via footnotes advising readers of odd facts related to the narrative and via Henry and Frances’ reentry challenges. The threads of the story, with various tales of parents gone missing, fortunes lost or never found, and good luck in the end, are gathered most satisfactorily and warmheartedly.
Highly amusing. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-358-42389-8
Page Count: 176
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
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