Readers are better off leaving this muddled fantasy aside.
This season isn’t starting well for the West Bottom Badgers, and it’s especially hard for one of the players.
Reggie is stuck on the bench. His basketball game is not improving, and he can’t see how he will ever make it to actually play as a true team member. Even though it was years ago, the loss of his parents weighs him down, as he believes they were murdered by the tyrannical President Talin. His parents left behind a mysterious box with a cryptic note inside along with a book full of metaphysical writing that he thinks must hold the secrets of grana—magic. This book picks up from the magical adventures Reggie’s basketball team experienced at an unusual basketball camp led by coach Rolabi Wizenard in the first installment, Training Camp (2019). While Reggie struggles to understand grana, Reggie’s grandmother and younger sister urge him to move on from his grief. Though things get worse before they get better for him on the court, Reggie’s teammates believe he is more than just a benchwarmer. Even as he struggles, the evident, ever present backstory of the larger world events looms vaguely over this slow-paced, oftentimes confusing story. If the plot is often unclear, the emphasis on the values of persistence and discipline is not, points hammered home in each chapter epigraph. Reggie is black, and his teammates are mostly kids of color.
Readers are better off leaving this muddled fantasy aside. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-949520-14-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Granity Studios
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
SEEN & HEARD
Wholesome shading to bland, but well-stocked with exotic creatures and locales, plus an agreeable cast headed by a child...
A San Diego preteen learns that she’s an elf, with a place in magic school if she moves to the elves’ hidden realm.
Having felt like an outsider since a knock on the head at age 5 left her able to read minds, Sophie is thrilled when hunky teen stranger Fitz convinces her that she’s not human at all and transports her to the land of Lumenaria, where the ageless elves live. Taken in by a loving couple who run a sanctuary for extinct and mythical animals, Sophie quickly gathers friends and rivals at Foxfire, a distinctly Hogwarts-style school. She also uncovers both clues to her mysterious origins and hints that a rash of strangely hard-to-quench wildfires back on Earth are signs of some dark scheme at work. Though Messenger introduces several characters with inner conflicts and ambiguous agendas, Sophie herself is more simply drawn as a smart, radiant newcomer who unwillingly becomes the center of attention while developing what turn out to be uncommonly powerful magical abilities—reminiscent of the younger Harry Potter, though lacking that streak of mischievousness that rescues Harry from seeming a little too perfect. The author puts her through a kidnapping and several close brushes with death before leaving her poised, amid hints of a higher destiny and still-anonymous enemies, for sequels.
Wholesome shading to bland, but well-stocked with exotic creatures and locales, plus an agreeable cast headed by a child who, while overly fond of screaming, rises to every challenge. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-4593-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
An eminently satisfying story of family, recovery, and growing into manhood.
In this prequel to Newbery Award–winning The Crossover (2014), Alexander revisits previous themes and formats while exploring new ones.
For Charlie Bell, the future father of The Crossover’s Jordan and Josh, his father’s death alters his relationship with his mother and causes him to avoid what reminds him of his dad. At first, he’s just withdrawn, but after he steals from a neighbor, his mother packs a reluctant Charlie off to his grandparents near Washington, D.C., for the summer. His grandfather works part-time at a Boys and Girls Club where his cousin Roxie is a star basketball player. Despite his protests, she draws him into the game. His time with his grandparents deepens Charlie’s understanding of his father, and he begins to heal. “I feel / a little more normal, / like maybe he’s still here, / … in a / as long as I remember him / he’s still right here / in my heart / kind of way.” Once again, Alexander has given readers an African-American protagonist to cheer. He is surrounded by a strong supporting cast, especially two brilliant female characters, his friend CJ and his cousin Roxie, as well as his feisty and wise granddaddy. Music and cultural references from the late 1980s add authenticity. The novel in verse is enhanced by Anyabwile’s art, which reinforces Charlie’s love for comics.
An eminently satisfying story of family, recovery, and growing into manhood. (Historical verse fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: April 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-544-86813-7
Page Count: 416
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
SEEN & HEARD
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