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DEFANGED

A clever, perceptive read that’s full of love for those who are different.

A vampire runs away after his parents attempt to “cure” him.

Lux Priddy is obsessed with animals, eager to share his knowledge, and anxious about following rules. He and his best friend, Emma Neroni, are also vampires. Vampires started coming “out of the coffin” in the ’90s—but since Vampirism Sucks invented a Defanging cure, many anticipate a future without their kind, something Emma and her parents find abhorrent. Lux doesn’t mind being a vampire, so when his twelfth birthnight comes, and his parents take him to be Defanged, he flees to Nox Urbus, the fabled underground city of vampires in the sewers of New York City. For the first time, Lux gets to live in a world that’s made for him, and he learns about his history and potential. But his disappearance ignites controversy in an anti-vampire society, and he’ll have to fight even harder for the right to be himself. Thoughtful details add realism to the vampires’ world, and the affection between quirky Lux and his compatriots brings fun and hope to a story that addresses serious, all-too-relevant issues. Lux’s autistic characteristics and the vampires’ legal and social status provide clear parallels to various marginalized groups’ struggles for civil rights. Many readers will see themselves in this work, and all will understand how propaganda and institutionalized bias affect our lives. Lux and his family read white, and Emma and her family are brown-skinned.

A clever, perceptive read that’s full of love for those who are different. (Paranormal. 9-12)

Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025

ISBN: 9781250874009

Page Count: 240

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025

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TUCK EVERLASTING

However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...

At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever. 

Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it. 

However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the first week in August when this takes place to "the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning") help to justify the extravagant early assertion that had the secret about to be revealed been known at the time of the action, the very earth "would have trembled on its axis like a beetle on a pin." (Fantasy. 9-11)

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975

ISBN: 0312369816

Page Count: 164

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975

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CLUES TO THE UNIVERSE

Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.

An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.

Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.

Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)

Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020

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