by Zack Loran Clark & Nick Eliopulos ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 13, 2018
A second story that lacks steam.
Now that the Adventurers Guild has saved Freestone in an epic battle in the series’ eponymous first installment (2017), new dangers lurk that are now not necessarily beyond the city’s walls.
Told in chapters of alternating third-person narration through the perspectives of the book’s heroes, Zed and Brock, the new adventure begins when the guild accepts the charge of elf queen Me’Shala to save the city of Llethanyl. After accidentally tapping into his elven powers in the previous book, Zed, now a full member of the Adventurers Guild, must come to terms with his half-elven, half-human origins as he feels increasing kinship with the elf refugees sheltering in Freestone. Meanwhile, his all-human best friend, Brock, is being blackmailed by the nefarious Lady Gray of the Merchants Guild to act as a spy within the Adventurers Guild. As the guild sets off on their mission to save Llethanyl, hidden dangers among them are revealed followed by the discovery of a lost city of druids. This second installment lacks the sprightly pacing, humor, and energy of the first, offering a slow build laced with lots of heavy dialogue and revelatory moments that don’t serve the overall story. The kid characters feel more like adults than the free-spirited youth introduced in the last installment. Too much backstory and too many characters who lack succinct focus make the story hard to follow at times. Zed has brown skin, and Brock presents white.
A second story that lacks steam. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4847-8860-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2018
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by Elinor Teele ; illustrated by Ben Whitehouse ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 12, 2016
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish.
The dreary prospect of spending a lifetime making caskets instead of wonderful inventions prompts a young orphan to snatch up his little sister and flee. Where? To the circus, of course.
Fortunately or otherwise, John and 6-year-old Page join up with Boz—sometime human cannonball for the seedy Wandering Wayfarers and a “vertically challenged” trickster with a fantastic gift for sowing chaos. Alas, the budding engineer barely has time to settle in to begin work on an experimental circus wagon powered by chicken poop and dubbed (with questionable forethought) the Autopsy. The hot pursuit of malign and indomitable Great-Aunt Beauregard, the Coggins’ only living relative, forces all three to leave the troupe for further flights and misadventures. Teele spins her adventure around a sturdy protagonist whose love for his little sister is matched only by his fierce desire for something better in life for them both and tucks in an outstanding supporting cast featuring several notably strong-minded, independent women (Page, whose glare “would kill spiders dead,” not least among them). Better yet, in Boz she has created a scene-stealing force of nature, a free spirit who’s never happier than when he’s stirring up mischief. A climactic clutch culminating in a magnificently destructive display of fireworks leaves the Coggin sibs well-positioned for bright futures. (Illustrations not seen.)
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish. (Adventure. 11-13)Pub Date: April 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234510-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
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by Elinor Teele
by Alan Gratz ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 25, 2017
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense.
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Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner
In the midst of political turmoil, how do you escape the only country that you’ve ever known and navigate a new life? Parallel stories of three different middle school–aged refugees—Josef from Nazi Germany in 1938, Isabel from 1994 Cuba, and Mahmoud from 2015 Aleppo—eventually intertwine for maximum impact.
Three countries, three time periods, three brave protagonists. Yet these three refugee odysseys have so much in common. Each traverses a landscape ruled by a dictator and must balance freedom, family, and responsibility. Each initially leaves by boat, struggles between visibility and invisibility, copes with repeated obstacles and heart-wrenching loss, and gains resilience in the process. Each third-person narrative offers an accessible look at migration under duress, in which the behavior of familiar adults changes unpredictably, strangers exploit the vulnerabilities of transients, and circumstances seem driven by random luck. Mahmoud eventually concludes that visibility is best: “See us….Hear us. Help us.” With this book, Gratz accomplishes a feat that is nothing short of brilliant, offering a skillfully wrought narrative laced with global and intergenerational reverberations that signal hope for the future. Excellent for older middle grade and above in classrooms, book groups, and/or communities looking to increase empathy for new and existing arrivals from afar.
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense. (maps, author’s note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: July 25, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-88083-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
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by Alan Gratz ; illustrated by Judit Tondora
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by Alan Gratz ; illustrated by Brent Schoonover
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by Alan Gratz
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