by William Ritter ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 22, 2021
Cinematic adventure and hope amid darkness, flavored with silliness: a winner.
Twin brothers, one a human and one a goblin changeling, seek their own paths but find the end of the world in this sequel to The Unready Queen (2020).
Tinn and Cole, brothers once as close as could be, are growing apart. Cole seeks to solve the mystery of their long-lost father, while changeling Tinn feels like an outsider in his human family. But amid the worsening earthquakes and the vanishing people and magical creatures, the boys must work together. Something very dangerous is happening under the Wild Wood, something much worse than the dark Thing that had menaced them all until the recent battle. In a lovely, successful inversion of expectation, the boys and their friends bring protective adult family along on their dangerous adventure (although of course circumstances conspire to require the children to do the bulk of the world-saving alone). In the deepest caverns, the adventurers encounter new magical creatures unlike any they’ve met before and discover that rebuilding a family is messy and painful. Can they trust the rået, the Tommyknocker, and the kobbs? The giant magma serpent? As they defeat a “pretty standard apocalypse,” the boys learn, as one goblin says, “Things dinna ever go back ta the way they were. Thass na how life works.” Previous titles cue the boys as White.
Cinematic adventure and hope amid darkness, flavored with silliness: a winner. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: June 22, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64375-092-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2021
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by Annie Matthew ; developed by Kobe Bryant ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 24, 2021
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship.
A young tennis champion becomes the target of revenge.
In this sequel to Legacy and the Queen (2019), Legacy Petrin and her friends Javi and Pippa have returned to Legacy’s home province and the orphanage run by her father. With her friends’ help, she is in training to defend her championship when they discover that another player, operating under the protection of High Consul Silla, is presenting herself as Legacy. She is so convincing that the real Legacy is accused of being an imitation. False Legacy has become a hero to the masses, further strengthening Silla’s hold, and it becomes imperative to uncover and defeat her. If Legacy is to win again, she must play her imposter while disguised as someone else. Winning at tennis is not just about money and fame, but resisting Silla’s plans to send more young people into brutal mines with little hope of better lives. Legacy will have to overcome her fears and find the magic that allowed her to claim victory in the past. This story, with its elements of sports, fantasy, and social consciousness that highlight tensions between the powerful and those they prey upon, successfully continues the series conceived by late basketball superstar Bryant. As before, the tennis matches are depicted with pace and spirit. Legacy and Javi have brown skin; most other characters default to White.
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-949520-19-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Granity Studios
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
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by Annie Matthew ; developed by Kobe Bryant
by K.R. Alexander ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 7, 2022
Thrills galore for gamers willing to go along for the ride.
A new virtual-reality theme park goes haywire on a crowd of young victims, er, visitors in Alexander’s latest screamfest.
Having scored one of just 100 coveted preview tickets to a cutting-edge, kids-only venue dubbed ESCAPE, budding amusement park fan and designer Cody Baxter is looking forward to a life-changing experience. What he gets is more of a life-threatening one, as games and rides with names like Triassic Terror and Haunted Hillside not only pit him against a monster and then zombies—or sometimes a monster and zombies—as well as ruthless competing players, but seem tailored to play on individual personal terrors. And, in some never explained way, the VR quickly turns into real battles that inflict real wounds even as the real settings shift with sudden, dizzying unpredictability. Teaming up with loyal new friends Jayson Torn and Inga Andersdottir, the former described as being Japanese and White and the latter as Norwegian, Cody (who seems to default to White) struggles for survival, learning ultimately that ESCAPE was created by an evil genius with an ulterior motive who is convinced that he can teach children a salutary lesson. The plot’s no more logical in its twists and contrivances than the premise, but the author’s knack for spinning out nightmarish situations is definitely on display here as the tale careens toward a properly lurid outcome.
Thrills galore for gamers willing to go along for the ride. (Light horror. 9-12)Pub Date: June 7, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-26047-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2022
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