Low in physical violence, while being rich in moral and ethical issues, as well as in appealingly complex characters and...
Pub Date: March 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-316-05777-0
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Megan Tingley/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
The wild magical menace barely fended off in Magic Thief: Lost (2009) is headed for the town of Wellmet, and only the guttersnipe-turned–wizard’s apprentice Connwaer and his gruff master, Nevery Flinglas, realize the danger. Having sacrificed his “locus magicalicus,” Conn’s first priority is finding a replacement—meaning concocting a finding spell that (as usual) results in spectacularly destructive pyrotechnics and the sudden necessity of a long and dangerous journey. Narrator Conn continues to be one of the most deliciously infuriating protagonists ever, so focused on saving his beloved city that he ignores such hazards as the sentence of exile its annoyed leaders impose on him and more distracted than upset when a supposedly extinct dragon snatches him away. Once again Prineas dishes up a nimble plot laced with explosions and large-scale magic-working, enhanced by Caparo’s spot-art portraits, punctuated with brief letters or journal entries and capped with a section of capsule bios and recipes. The author brings the story to a strong close, too—but, good news, she has admitted in an interview to considering further sequels. (Fantasy. 11-13)
Pub Date: June 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-06-137593-4
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Review Posted Online: Jan. 23, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2010
Taking a page from Avi’s The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (1990), Kehret (I’m Not Who You Think I Am, p. 223, etc.) pens a similar story of a girl who goes to sea. Determined not to be separated from her seriously ill mother, Emma, 12, embarks on a plan that results in the adventure of a lifetime. Sent to live with Aunt Martha and her arrogant son, Odolf, Emma carefully plots her escape. Disguising herself in her cousin’s used clothes, she sneaks out while the household slumbers and stows away on what she believes to be a ship carrying her parents from England to the warmer climate of France. Instead, the ship is the evil, ill-fated Black Lightning, under the command of the notorious Captain Beacon. Emma finds herself sharing quarters with a crew of filthy, surly, dangerous men. When a fierce storm swamps the ship, Emma desperately seizes her chance to escape, drifting for several days and nights aboard a hatch cover and finally carried to land somewhere on the coast of Africa. Hungry, thirsty, and alone, Emma faces the daunting prospect of slow starvation, but survives due to a relationship she builds with a band of chimpanzees. This page-turning adventure story shows evidence of solid research and experienced plotting—the pacing is breathless. Kehret paints a starkly realistic portrait, complete with sounds and smells of the difficult and unpleasant life aboard ship. (Fiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-671-03416-2
Page Count: 138
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
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