Steeped in themes of growth and acceptance, a solid continuation of an impactful first installment.
Difficult life lessons are learned against a backdrop of rural America during World War II.
In this sequel to 2016’s Wolf Hollow, Annabelle is still processing the grief and guilt of the previous year’s events. After she befriended Toby, an anti-social veteran, both of them became the targets of a vicious young bully and her accomplice, an escalating dispute that resulted in two tragic deaths. Now, as Annabelle struggles to understand the nuances of her grief, she experiences a lightning strike that upends her world yet again. With dim memories of aid rendered by a mysterious stranger, Annabelle knows she is lucky to be alive. She is physically healthy despite the brush with death but finds that all of her senses are heightened—including her ability to interpret the body language and signals of animals. Annabelle falls into old habits of suspicion and deception but with good cause: Several dogs have gone missing in the community, and neighbor Andy, one-time sidekick to her former tormentor, is behaving oddly. Annabelle may be the only person equipped to help the missing dogs. Written with warmth, Wolk’s complicated characters keep readers guessing. Annabelle learns tough lessons about making assumptions and building trust on the path to forgiveness. All characters are assumed White.
Steeped in themes of growth and acceptance, a solid continuation of an impactful first installment. (Historical fiction. 9-14)Pub Date: May 3, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-525-55559-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2022
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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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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