An engaging tale of reemerging dinosaurs and superb tween heroes.
In this middle-grade SF/fantasy debut, a group of bright kids makes a world-changing discovery in Mexico.
Ben, Ariel, and three of their friends, who live in Israel, are spending their summer vacations with their scientist parents in Yucatán. Ariel’s father leads a team researching Mayan priests, but it’s the 12-year-old kids who unearth a significant find. While off on their own, they enter a cave leading to a cylindrical machine. This seven-seater, which apparently runs on automatic pilot, takes the gang, which includes Amir, Gaia, and Abigail, to a room of amazing sights. Most astonishing is a collection of dinosaurs, from reptilian creatures in aquariums to Pterosaur eggs. The friends’ parents soon join Ben and the others, and the group surmises that the kids “activated” this special room telepathically. So when the Pterosaur babies hatch, the youngsters wear EEG helmets to link their brainwaves with the dinosaurs’. Each tween chooses, names, and ultimately rides a Pterosaur, as the five reptiles soon learn how to fly. Though the parents wisely keep this discovery a secret as long as possible, dangerous people track them down and demand specifics on the dinosaurs. Leo’s series opener features a diverse cast of adolescents, including Native American Gaia and Russian immigrant Abigail. They’re each intelligent and much more levelheaded than the adults. The parents, for example, often bicker and grumble—scenes that the tale plays for laughs, such as a scientist telling her peers they’re “acting like babies.” The author shrouds the narrative in ambiguity as characters piece together myriad theories from a “series of assumptions,” hoping to explain everything that’s in the room. This entails a wide range of entertaining possibilities, like aliens and varying religions. An added menace amps up the story’s latter half when an environmental message slowly comes to light. Nevertheless, most readers will guess who the villains are well before the reveal.
An engaging tale of reemerging dinosaurs and superb tween heroes.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 325
Publisher: Ultra Particle
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Part cautionary tale, part juicy love story, this will appeal to action and adventure fans who aren't yet sick of the genre.
A dystopic thriller joins the crowded shelves but doesn't distinguish itself.
Juliette was torn from her home and thrown into an asylum by The Reestablishment, a militaristic regime in control since an environmental catastrophe left society in ruins. Juliette’s journal holds her tortured thoughts in an attempt to repress memories of the horrific act that landed her in a cell. Mysteriously, Juliette’s touch kills. After months of isolation, her captors suddenly give her a cellmate—Adam, a drop-dead gorgeous guy. Adam, it turns out, is immune to her deadly touch. Unfortunately, he’s a soldier under orders from Warner, a power-hungry 19-year-old. But Adam belongs to a resistance movement; he helps Juliette escape to their stronghold, where she finds that she’s not the only one with superhuman abilities. The ending falls flat as the plot devolves into comic-book territory. Fast-paced action scenes convey imminent danger vividly, but there’s little sense of a broader world here. Overreliance on metaphor to express Juliette’s jaw-dropping surprise wears thin: “My mouth is sitting on my kneecaps. My eyebrows are dangling from the ceiling.” For all of her independence and superpowers, Juliette never moves beyond her role as a pawn in someone else’s schemes.
Part cautionary tale, part juicy love story, this will appeal to action and adventure fans who aren't yet sick of the genre. (Science fiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-208548-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
SEEN & HEARD
A romance born from danger with a fantastic buildup.
Secrets of the past and familial tensions abound in this sequel that teases forbidden romance.
Quell’s connection to her toushana, or dark magic, poses such a great threat to the magical Order of grand Houses, haughty debutantes, and high-stakes bureaucracy that the powerful Dragun brotherhood has determined she must die. Jordan, a former lover still hurt by Quell’s decision to bind to her toushana, is leading the charge—and unbeknownst to them both, Yagrin, his brother who has long hated the Order, has sided with Quell under false pretenses. The narration alternates among the voices of Quell, Jordan, and Nore, who wants a simpler life than her role as heir to the House of Ambrose can afford her; she’s dedicated to resolving this problem by any means necessary. The racially diverse cast of characters is large and at times unwieldy, but as Quell decides to leave the safe houses that have kept her hidden and reenter the world of lavish magical balls to find her long-lost mother, reminders of the earlier volume—beautiful gowns, cattiness, fish-out-of-water awkwardness—bring all the threads together, allowing for continued worldbuilding and a fuller story. Ultimately, Quell and Jordan’s tension boils over into the passionate romance it was always meant to be as the two partner with Yagrin and Nore to reveal the Order’s biggest secrets and potentially change the future of magic forever.
A romance born from danger with a fantastic buildup. (author’s note, histories of the houses, map, lexicon) (Fantasy. 13-18)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9780593527733
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
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