GLORY ROSLYN AND THE HEART OF UNIVERSE

This middle-grade fantasy stars a girl who finds a strange being in her yard and begins a series of cosmic adventures.

Eleven-year-old Glory is the adopted child of Jean and Myrtle Willis. Jean was a famous sculptor until his wife died in a car accident six years ago. Now, he depends on the statues Glory sculpts, passed off as his own, to keep up his supply of wine. Glory’s 16-year-old brother, Peter, also drinks heavily, yet the girl retains an unsinkable spirit. One day after an intense thunderstorm, Glory and her best friend, Shaili “Lintie” Chakraborty, explore the garden behind the Willis family’s home. Lintie claims she saw “red and blue” lights descend during the storm. With the help of a tiny dragon that lives in Glory’s palm, the girls locate an “egg-like thing.” Lintie hits the egg with a hammer, and when it cracks open, a baby appears—a baby with the head of an elephant. Glory names the child Roslyn, and the girls take the infant to the library to research their new friend. There they meet the bookworm Teeku, who explains that portals connect various magical realms. Meanwhile, in the hidden Sacred Region, the dwarf Poi speaks with a Sphinx named the Great Lady. They discuss the tragedy of the Mystic Misti, who’s trapped in a comalike state. The Great Lady believes a piece of Misti’s soul is missing, and sends Poi to the cursed realm of Kaiser, where souls dwell. Glory, Lintie, and Roslyn also travel through a portal to Kaiser, where they meet its ruler, Paterfamilias. He tells the girls: “You’re our saviors—our only hope.”

In this fantasy series opener, Tushar brings a grand imagination to bear on a story about resiliency in dark times. The portals, known as “Cameras,” make traveling to and exploring different realms straightforward. In the realms, the girls meet dragons, water giants, and even slow-talking trees, not unlike the Ents in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings saga. Throughout most of the narrative, Tushar’s primary aim is to elicit wonder from the audience. The protagonists travel wide-eyed from one exotic locale to the next, always at the behest of an otherworldly being. Paterfamilias, for example, sends the girls after the Eau Benite, a potion that can lift the curse afflicting Kaiser. But frequently the author doesn’t linger on one miraculous creation long enough before introducing another. This whirlwind approach to storytelling is initially inviting, and readers will feel like they’ve wandered into a colorful museum. Yet the tale rushes past chaotically, and younger audiences, even those familiar with the intricacy of the Harry Potternovels, may wish for the drama to unfold with less clutter. There are many beautiful moments, as when “the light of the thunderstorms far above them shone with countless bright flashes...The Silver Dragon was swooshing down like a shooting star.” True danger doesn’t arrive until later, in the form of the witch Ziltus Blackhead. When Glory and Lintie are separated in the cliffhanger finale, the constant presence of magical beings mutes any true sense of drama or danger.

A vivid and inventive fantasy whose blitzkrieg storytelling will leave some young readers bewildered.