Offering the comfort of familiarity, “Haberdasher” (aka Robyn Schneider) crafts an alternate-world boarding-school tale set in the loosely confederated Britonian Isles and featuring a trio of commoner lads admitted against all custom to the posh academy where Knights of the Realm are trained. Having met and bonded with each other and also with the obligatory spunky female sidekick (the Headmaster’s willful daughter Frankie), orphanage-raised foundling Henry joins Adam, compulsively verbal scion of a clan of Jewish bankers, and Rohan Mehta, a dark-skinned adoptee raised in a refined ducal household, in sticking it out despite the sneers of classmates, anonymous threats and an underhanded campaign to get them expelled. Along with much discussion about defying both class expectations and blatantly sexist gender roles, the author sets her central characters up with an entertaining line of banter as they gradually learn that they’re pawns in a broad intrigue in which seeming adversaries turn out to be allies and vice versa. With Henry’s discovery that the neighboring Nordlands (think Scotland, with a Stalinist overlay) is secretly preparing for war, the author also crafts a continuing plotline for sequels to this pleasant if unambitious opener. (Fantasy. 11-13)
Pub Date: March 9, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4169-9143-4
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
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
Four fifth-graders are recruited by a scheming magician in this hefty bonbon from the author of the Fablehaven tales. At first, Nate, Summer, Trevor and Pigeon think they have it good. Having asked them to help her recover a hidden treasure that (she says) belongs to her, Belinda White, friendly proprietor of a sweets shop that has just opened in their small town, provides some uncommon candies—like Moon Rocks, that give them the ability to jump like grasshoppers, and literally electrifying Shock Bits. When she begins asking them to commit certain burglaries, though, their exhilaration turns to unease, and rightly so; Mrs. White is actually after a draft from the Fountain of Youth that will make her the world’s most powerful magician. And, as it turns out, she isn’t the only magician who’s come to town—not even the only one whose magic is tied to sweets. Filling out the supporting cast with the requisite trio of bullies, plus magical minions of various (and sometimes gross) abilities, Mull trots his twist-laden plot forward to a well set-up climax. Leaving the door open an inch for sequels, he dishes up a crowd-pleaser as delicious—if not so weird—as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory . (Fantasy. 10-13)
Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-59038-783-2
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2007
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