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THE PALE QUEEN

An enchanting spin on the proverbial cautionary tale of Faerie.

Bookish Agatha lives in a pastoral village where a silky-furred black dog lurks in the shadows.

The dog’s slitted yellow eyes follow Agatha as she moves through the peaceful pastel tones and rounded edges of her everyday world; the illustrations evoke a Victorian English village. Agatha tutors a brown-skinned boy named Peter Garcia, helps her parents with the upkeep of their modest cottage, and fends off unwelcome advances from shop owner’s son Claude. All the while, she dreams of studying astronomy but despairs of the barriers she faces. Agatha steps into a trap laid by the dog, who transforms into the Lady of the Hills (a dapper, pallid woman with the dog’s yellow eyes and flowing black locks), who claims that Agatha owes her a favor. Despite Agatha’s sweet developing romance with Heather Garcia, Peter’s blond cousin, she’s still enchanted by the Lady, who pulls her into magical adventures that are by turns dreamy and upsetting. While Agatha loves the Lady’s starlit dance party in a stone circle, she abhors the consequence she metes out in response to Claude’s persistent attentions. When the Lady’s antics affect Heather, Agatha must take the initiative. Agatha’s curiosity makes her an engaging hero, and the tale’s events unfold at a satisfying pace. The story tempers genuine fear and horror with lighthearted gentleness. Agatha is biracial, with a white father and a brown-skinned, black-haired mother.

An enchanting spin on the proverbial cautionary tale of Faerie. (character sketches) (Graphic fantasy. 9-14)

Pub Date: June 25, 2024

ISBN: 9780063247215

Page Count: 240

Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: March 23, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024

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THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL

From the School for Good and Evil series , Vol. 1

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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NOWHERE BOY

A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high...

Two parallel stories, one of a Syrian boy from Aleppo fleeing war, and another of a white American boy, son of a NATO contractor, dealing with the challenges of growing up, intersect at a house in Brussels.

Ahmed lost his father while crossing the Mediterranean. Alone and broke in Europe, he takes things into his own hands to get to safety but ends up having to hide in the basement of a residential house. After months of hiding, he is discovered by Max, a boy of similar age and parallel high integrity and courage, who is experiencing his own set of troubles learning a new language, moving to a new country, and being teased at school. In an unexpected turn of events, the two boys and their new friends Farah, a Muslim Belgian girl, and Oscar, a white Belgian boy, successfully scheme for Ahmed to go to school while he remains in hiding the rest of the time. What is at stake for Ahmed is immense, and so is the risk to everyone involved. Marsh invites art and history to motivate her protagonists, drawing parallels to gentiles who protected Jews fleeing Nazi terror and citing present-day political news. This well-crafted and suspenseful novel touches on the topics of refugees and immigrant integration, terrorism, Islam, Islamophobia, and the Syrian war with sensitivity and grace.

A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high values in the face of grave risk and succeed in drawing goodwill from others. (Historical fiction. 10-14)

Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-250-30757-6

Page Count: 368

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

Review Posted Online: June 10, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018

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