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THE BLACK CANARY

Name: THE BLACK CANARY
Author: Jane Louise Curry
ISBN: 0-689-86478-7

by Jane Louise Curry ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2005

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Twelve-year-old biracial James (almost 13) travels 400 years back in time to Elizabethan London in this slow-to-start but ultimately steadily suspenseful historical fantasy. James feels misunderstood, and resents the role that music plays in his family. Reluctantly accompanying his parents to London where his mother is singing with an esteemed period-instrument ensemble, James is drawn to “a faint oval shimmer hanging motionless in midair” in the basement of their flat—a portal to the past. Curry brings history remarkably to life, particularly after James is recruited to the Children of the Chapel Royal, has a part in Ben Jonson’s new play Cynthia’s Revels and is swept up in preparing a solo for the Queen on Twelfth Night day, discovering how much singing matters to him. The tension between James’s increasing involvement in the early 1600s, and his need to maneuver a way back to the present near to when he left will keep young readers turning the pages. Though some aspects of the story feel underdeveloped, Curry makes the life of another era convincingly real. (Fiction. 10-14)

Pub Date: March 1, 2005

ISBN: 0-689-86478-7

Page Count: 288

Publisher: McElderry

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2005

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | CHILDREN'S HISTORICAL FICTION | CHILDREN'S ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS

- BOOK REVIEW
HOLD UP THE SKY
adapted by Jane Louise Curry & illustrated by James Watts

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WONDERFUL SKY BOAT
adapted by Jane Louise Curry & illustrated by James Watts

- BOOK REVIEW
THE EGYPTIAN BOX
by Jane Louise Curry

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THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL

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

by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 14, 2013

Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.

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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)