A fine middle volume, lit up with “laughs and tears and the occasional fart joke.” (wig information and quiz appended)...
Aspiring detective/veterinarian/artist Anastasia McCrumpet’s escape from vile St. Agony’s Asylum leads to radical changes of fortune, status, mission, and even name in this revelation-packed sequel to The League of Beastly Dreadfuls (2015).
Having been taken to the subterranean city of Nowhere Special (beneath the Swiss Alps), Anastasia learns not only that she’s a princess of the royal Merrymoon family, but that her grandfather Nicodemus has a special tattoo that could help her find her missing father. But Nicodemus too is missing—locked in an invisible casket at the start of a centuries-old war between witches and the shape-changing Morfolk. Calling on all the sleuthing skills learned from her fictional heroine Francie Dewdrop and hardly slowed by either snotty cousin Saskia or her own “tragic flatulence,” Anastasia sets out in search of clues to the eponymous Deed through a dizzying array of gleefully baroque distractions. Clues indeed do turn up, along with both old and new members for Anastasia’s allied League of Beastly Dreadfuls, awful hazards like thought-eating “mooncooties,” and many references to poop, vomit, waffles, bats, cupcakes with glow-in-the-dark mushroom filling, silly powdered wigs, and like diversions. Finished illustrations not seen.
A fine middle volume, lit up with “laughs and tears and the occasional fart joke.” (wig information and quiz appended) (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-385-37025-7
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Wholesome shading to bland, but well-stocked with exotic creatures and locales, plus an agreeable cast headed by a child...
A San Diego preteen learns that she’s an elf, with a place in magic school if she moves to the elves’ hidden realm.
Having felt like an outsider since a knock on the head at age 5 left her able to read minds, Sophie is thrilled when hunky teen stranger Fitz convinces her that she’s not human at all and transports her to the land of Lumenaria, where the ageless elves live. Taken in by a loving couple who run a sanctuary for extinct and mythical animals, Sophie quickly gathers friends and rivals at Foxfire, a distinctly Hogwarts-style school. She also uncovers both clues to her mysterious origins and hints that a rash of strangely hard-to-quench wildfires back on Earth are signs of some dark scheme at work. Though Messenger introduces several characters with inner conflicts and ambiguous agendas, Sophie herself is more simply drawn as a smart, radiant newcomer who unwillingly becomes the center of attention while developing what turn out to be uncommonly powerful magical abilities—reminiscent of the younger Harry Potter, though lacking that streak of mischievousness that rescues Harry from seeming a little too perfect. The author puts her through a kidnapping and several close brushes with death before leaving her poised, amid hints of a higher destiny and still-anonymous enemies, for sequels.
Wholesome shading to bland, but well-stocked with exotic creatures and locales, plus an agreeable cast headed by a child who, while overly fond of screaming, rises to every challenge. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-4593-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
A beautifully rendered setting enfolds a disappointing plot.
In sixth grade, Izzy Mancini’s cozy, loving world falls apart.
She and her family have moved out of the cottage she grew up in. Her mother has spent the summer on Block Island instead of at home with Izzy. Her father has recently returned from military service in Afghanistan partially paralyzed and traumatized. The only people she can count on are Zelda and Piper, her best friends since kindergarten—that is, until the Haidary family moves into the upstairs apartment. At first, Izzy resents the new guests from Afghanistan even though she knows she should be grateful that Dr. Haidary saved her father’s life. But despite her initial resistance (which manifests at times as racism), as Izzy gets to know Sitara, the Haidarys’ daughter, she starts to question whether Zelda and Piper really are her friends for forever—and whether she has the courage to stand up for Sitara against the people she loves. Ferruolo weaves a rich setting, fully immersing readers in the largely white, coastal town of Seabury, Rhode Island. Disappointingly, the story resolves when Izzy convinces her classmates to accept Sitara by revealing the Haidarys’ past as American allies, a position that put them in so much danger that they had to leave home. The idea that Sitara should be embraced only because her family supported America, rather than simply because she is a human being, significantly undermines the purported message of tolerance for all.
A beautifully rendered setting enfolds a disappointing plot. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-374-30909-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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