A high-stakes, fast-paced, dragon-filled underdog story.
Thirteen-year-old Cassidy Drake enters a dangerous race to save her family’s dragon sanctuary.
Cassidy lives on her family’s dragon ranch in Texas with her Grandma Lynn and her Pa; her mother, the first woman to win the Great Texas Dragon Race, was killed by a Texas coral viper. When a representative from massive energy company FireCorp, who cruelly use dragons for oil production, offers to buy their ranch, Cassidy seizes her chance to save it—and their rescue dragons—by entering the race. With hospitalized Gran’s signature on the application (but without Pa’s permission), Cassidy and her dragon, Ranga, become the 51st team to enter, joining some corporate-sponsored riders. The sponsored riders are similar to the Careers in The Hunger Games. Cassidy and her allies, Laura, Colt, and sisters Rose and Viv, are as scrappy and motivated as Katniss Everdeen—and they face equally high stakes as they fight powerful forces that abuse dragons for profit. “Our choices reveal our character” reads the inscription on the compass, a family heirloom, that Gran gives Cassidy. And this proves true of Cassidy and the other riders—especially FireCorp-sponsored competitor Ash—as the tasks become ever more dangerous. Cassidy is a take-action hero with a strong moral compass, and Ranga, though small, is equally tough. Cassidy and Colt, who is gay, read White; Laura is Latina, and Rose and Viv are cued South Asian.
A high-stakes, fast-paced, dragon-filled underdog story. (guide to dragons) (Fantasy. 9-13)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2023
ISBN: 9780063247925
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023
A pleasing premise for book lovers.
A fantasy-loving bookworm makes a wonderful, terrible bargain.
When sixth grader Poppy Woodlock’s historic preservationist parents move the family to the Oregon coast to work on the titular stately home, Poppy’s sure she’ll find magic. Indeed, the exiled water nymph in the manor’s ruined swimming pool grants a wish, but: “Magic isn’t free. It cosssts.” The price? Poppy’s favorite book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In return she receives Sampson, a winged lion cub who is everything Poppy could have hoped for. But she soon learns that the nymph didn’t take just her own physical book—she erased Narnia from Poppy’s world. And it’s just the first loss: Soon, Poppy’s grandmother’s journal’s gone, then The Odyssey, and more. The loss is heartbreaking, but Sampson’s a wonderful companion, particularly as Poppy’s finding middle school a tough adjustment. Hartman’s premise is beguiling—plenty of readers will identify with Poppy, both as a fellow bibliophile and as a kid struggling to adapt. Poppy’s repeatedly expressed faith that unveiling Sampson will bring some sort of vindication wears thin, but that does not detract from the central drama. It’s a pity that the named real-world books Poppy reads are notably lacking in diversity; a story about the power of literature so limited in imagination lets both itself and readers down. Main characters are cued White; there is racial diversity in the supporting cast. Chapters open with atmospheric spot art. (This review has been updated to reflect the final illustrations.)
A pleasing premise for book lovers. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9780316448222
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
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.
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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