A cliffhanger ending compels a return to this absorbing Indigenous fantasy.
Morgan and Eli return to Askí in this sequel to The Barren Grounds (2020).
Actually, the Cree foster siblings have been returning nightly, taking advantage of the different passage of time between Earth and Askí to stay in the village of Misewa for weeks while their foster parents sleep. Their joy in staying with the animal beings of Misewa is tempered by the loss of the old fisher Ochek. On Earth, Eli is bullied at school so relentlessly he cuts off his braid, and their foster parents (who are White) have thrown Morgan for a loop by giving her the telephone number of her birth mother—whom the eighth grader hasn’t seen since she was taken away as a toddler. So when Eli proposes changing their portal to go to a time when Ochek is young, Morgan agrees. Their ensuing adventure is something of an idyll, giving the kids a glimpse of a peaceful, prosperous Misewa. Readers of Volume 1 will enjoy this new aspect on favorite characters just as much as Morgan and Eli do, especially the squirrel Arik and teenage Ochek. The struggle against the rampaging Great Bear—shockingly, a younger version of wise village elder Muskwa—drives the action. Robertson’s (Norway House Cree Nation) nods at the complexity of time-travel plots serve as wry metafictive commentary and also tie into his consideration of profound existential questions.
A cliffhanger ending compels a return to this absorbing Indigenous fantasy. (glossary) (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 28, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7352-6613-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Puffin/Penguin Random House Canada
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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BOOK REVIEW
Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious.
If you made a recording to be heard by the aliens who found the iPod, what would you record?
For 11-year-old Alex Petroski, it's easy. He records everything. He records the story of how he travels to New Mexico to a rocket festival with his dog, Carl Sagan, and his rocket. He records finding out that a man with the same name and birthday as his dead father has an address in Las Vegas. He records eating at Johnny Rockets for the first time with his new friends, who are giving him a ride to find his dead father (who might not be dead!), and losing Carl Sagan in the wilds of Las Vegas, and discovering he has a half sister. He even records his own awful accident. Cheng delivers a sweet, soulful debut novel with a brilliant, refreshing structure. His characters manage to come alive through the “transcript” of Alex’s iPod recording, an odd medium that sounds like it would be confusing but really works. Taking inspiration from the Voyager Golden Record released to space in 1977, Alex, who explains he has “light brown skin,” records all the important moments of a journey that takes him from a family of two to a family of plenty.
Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-18637-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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
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