“Cinderella” plus dragons is an always-appealing trope; the anti-racist polemic adds some flavor
An orphan foundling finds four dragon eggs on an island nation that’s divided by nationalism and bigotry.
Twelve-year-old Milla works in the household of a wealthy merchant and his children, the twins Isak and Tarya. Though the twins are privileged, white Norlanders and Milla is their brown-skinned servant of uncertain parentage, the three children are dear friends. But in one chaotic day, Milla witnesses a murder, Isak learns he’s being sent away to learn a trade, Tarya’s told she’ll be marrying the duke’s only son—and then there are the eggs. The murdered man hid a sack containing four dragon eggs before he was killed, and only Milla saw him do it. The children are soon pulled into political intrigue against their will, as their island of Arcosi (realized with Italian inflections and colonized by the vaguely Nordic Norlanders) is torn apart by the nationalist bigotry of the duke’s police state. Is the return of dragons a sign that things are improving for Arcosi? Or is it just another reason for the increasingly paranoid duke to harm the most vulnerable? Despite shakiness in the story’s logic, there’s a reason that tales of penniless nobodies forming life bonds with dragons have enduring popularity, and this book falls squarely into that winning formula.
“Cinderella” plus dragons is an always-appealing trope; the anti-racist polemic adds some flavor . (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-34966-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: David Fickling/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
A waggish tale with a serious (and timely) theme.
An age-old rivalry is reluctantly put aside when two young vacationers are lost in the wilderness.
Anthropomorphic—in body if definitely not behavior—Dogg Scout Oscar and pampered Molly Hissleton stray from their separate camps, meet by chance in a trackless magic forest, and almost immediately recognize that their only chance of survival, distasteful as the notion may be, lies in calling a truce. Patterson and Grabenstein really work the notion here that cooperation is better than prejudice founded on ignorance and habit, interspersing explicit exchanges on the topic while casting the squabbling pair with complementary abilities that come out as they face challenges ranging from finding food to escaping such predators as a mountain lion and a pack of vicious “weaselboars.” By the time they cross a wide river (on a raft steered by “Old Jim,” an otter whose homespun utterances are generally cribbed from Mark Twain—an uneasy reference) back to civilization, the two are BFFs. But can that friendship survive the return, with all the social and familial pressures to resume the old enmity? A climactic cage-match–style confrontation before a worked-up multispecies audience provides the answer. In the illustrations (not seen in finished form) López plops wide-eyed animal heads atop clothed, more or less human forms and adds dialogue balloons for punchlines.
A waggish tale with a serious (and timely) theme. (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-41156-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
Readers will gobble this down and look for more, make no mythtake.
Promising myth-adventures aplenty, this kickoff episode introduces young Zeus, “a very special, yet clueless godboy.”
After 10-year-old Zeus is plucked from his childhood cave in Crete by armed “Cronies” of the Titan king, Cronus, he is rescued by harpies. He then finds himself in a Grecian temple where he acquires a lightning bolt with the general personality of a puppy and receives hints of his destiny from an Oracle with fogged eyeglasses. Recaptured and about to be eaten by Cronus, Zeus hurls the bolt down the Titan’s throat—causing the king to choke and then, thanks to an alert Crony’s Heimlich maneuver, to barf up several previously eaten Olympians. Spooning in numerous ingredients from the origin myth’s traditional versions, the veteran authors whip up a smooth confection, spiced with both gross bits and contemporary idiom (“ ‘Eew!’ a voice shrieked. ‘This is disgusting!’ ”) and well larded with full-page illustrations (not seen). One thorough washing later, off marches the now-cocky lad with new allies Poseidon and Hera, to rescue more Olympians in the next episode.
Readers will gobble this down and look for more, make no mythtake. (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-5787-4
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2012
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