A charming and thought-provoking sequel.
Two children and their stalwart chosen family sail a sky-ship beyond the known lands in this sequel to Brightstorm (2020).
Maudie and Arty Brightstorm, orphaned 13-year-olds, were adopted into the crew of the Aurora after their adventure in South Polaris. Now all the Lontown exploring families are off on a quest to find a missing adventurer. If only the rescue attempt weren’t led by the twins’ archnemesis: their maternal aunt Eudora Vane, who had their father murdered. Arty suspects there’s more here than a rescue mission. There’s a mysterious signet ring, odd triangle tattoos, and rumors of a university secret society. He even keeps seeing an unusual word, Erythea. But his beloved Maudie, usually interested in whatever Arty does, is wrapped up in her new engineering projects and has no time for the mystery. They eventually find their way to the lost continent, a beautiful, tropical ecotopia led by scholars with extremely advanced technology who live in harmony with nature. This entry smoothly blends a warmhearted, lovely fantasy adventure with moral lessons inherent in discovering a utopian secret. The Lontowners read as White while the people of the Eastern Isles and the lost continent range from pale to brown-skinned. Arty’s disability—he has one arm and no longer wears a prosthetic—is rarely mentioned, unlike in Book 1, in which it’s beautifully and realistically handled. Final art not seen.
A charming and thought-provoking sequel. (Steampunk. 9-11)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-324-01595-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Norton Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
A successful call for creating and imagining, even if the story itself falls short.
In the dystopian, totalitarian world of 2099, 14-year-old Tessa and her family are desperate to solve the mystery of her twin brother Theo’s disappearance.
Tessa is growing up in a time when playgrounds are historical relics, surveillance cameras are everywhere, music is outlawed, and owning books is illegal. Under the absolute rule of Zokiris, the decadeslong leader of her territory, people are heavily controlled. When Theo vanishes under mysterious circumstances and his name is erased from the Territory Statistics list, Tessa’s 135-year-old neighbor, Miriam, gives the family contraband books that become central to figuring out Theo’s whereabouts. Most books have long since been seized and stored away in Building 903; Tessa is intrigued by their presence in her home, while her mother is terrified. Lowry, the acclaimed, award-winning author of The Giver (1993), shines in her creation of uncomfortably believable dystopian societies. Tessa’s painfully limited world is fully imagined, with its own history, laws, and norms. Her relationship with her brother reads as realistic and tender and is crucial to the mystery. Miriam is the most strongly developed character: wise and independent, unafraid and hopeful. While the climb to the book’s climax is captivating, the hurried resolution is disappointing. The powerful messaging around the importance of literature and imagination certainly resonates, however. The main characters present white.
A successful call for creating and imagining, even if the story itself falls short. (Dystopian. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780063515109
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK TO SCREEN
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