A captivating volley of revelations and resolutions.
Emmeline and company return to thwart the nefarious Lady Aisling in Connolly’s gripping conclusion to her Shadow Weaver duet.
When the Cerelia Comet, under which all magically talented children are born, streaks through the sky 12 years early, there can only be one cause—Lady Aisling. A centuries-old magic eater, Lady Aisling steals and traps other talented people, and the comet’s early arrival means she has gained control of a sky shaker, who has the power to rearrange celestial bodies at will. Meanwhile, Emmeline and Lucas work hard to hone their respective talents of shadow weaving and light singing, which allowed them to escape Lady Aisling’s clutches before, but when Lucas’ parents are captured, the duo must flee to find the secret network that protects talented people and seek help. Terrified at the prospect that Lady Aisling may cultivate more magical children to harvest, Emmeline and Lucas and a small handful of new friends prepare to take her down once and for all. But to have a chance of defeating Lady Aisling, they must work with someone just as dangerous—Dar, Emmeline’s former shadow and Lady Aisling’s twin sister. Picking up immediately after the events of the first book, this narrative immerses readers in the layered tensions of a fight for survival, building them to the breaking point. Conflict on a cosmic scale is no simple thing to contain effectively, but a more action-oriented focus than its prequel and a classic evil to defeat keep things balanced. The book assumes a white default.
A captivating volley of revelations and resolutions. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4998-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2018
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel.
Sure signs that the creative wells are running dry at last, the Captain’s ninth, overstuffed outing both recycles a villain (see Book 4) and offers trendy anti-bullying wish fulfillment.
Not that there aren’t pranks and envelope-pushing quips aplenty. To start, in an alternate ending to the previous episode, Principal Krupp ends up in prison (“…a lot like being a student at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School, except that the prison had better funding”). There, he witnesses fellow inmate Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) escape in a giant Robo-Suit (later reduced to time-traveling trousers). The villain sets off after George and Harold, who are in juvie (“not much different from our old school…except that they have library books here.”). Cut to five years previous, in a prequel to the whole series. George and Harold link up in kindergarten to reduce a quartet of vicious bullies to giggling insanity with a relentless series of pranks involving shaving cream, spiders, effeminate spoof text messages and friendship bracelets. Pilkey tucks both topical jokes and bathroom humor into the cartoon art, and ups the narrative’s lexical ante with terms like “pharmaceuticals” and “theatrical flair.” Unfortunately, the bullies’ sad fates force Krupp to resign, so he’s not around to save the Earth from being destroyed later on by Talking Toilets and other invaders…
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-17534-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
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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