A fast-paced gaming story with substance.
Players of a popular online game are hot off a win at the Affinity Invitational Tournament in this second series entry.
Hannah, Larkin, Josh, and Wheatley have gone pro and are playing together under the team name The Weird Ones. Making money playing video games might seem like a dream come true, but the pressure that comes with their new celebrity status is taking a toll. Hannah and Larkin are livestreaming their gameplay, and other users aren’t always kind. Hannah isn’t sure that she wants to continue but doesn’t want to let her friend down. Josh is struggling with feeling left out as his parents restrict his participation, and Wheatley—an AI persona who has taken on a mind of his own—has been missing under suspicious circumstances since the last game of the tournament. The Weird Ones are taking an upcoming gaming conference as the opportunity to confront the game creators and demand they bring Wheatley back. Roadblocks abound as Josh’s anti-gaming parents forbid him from attending and malicious Wheatley wannabees are flooding the Affinity gameplay. The friends need to put aside their personal struggles to find Wheatley and win more matches. The realistic portrayals of racism and inappropriate behavior toward girls and women in the gaming world are commendable. Hannah and Larkin are White, and they are mentored by Glitz, a prominent Black gamer; the previous volume established Josh as Chinese American. Final art not seen.
A fast-paced gaming story with substance. (game manual) (Fiction. 9-14)Pub Date: June 13, 2023
ISBN: 9780593433447
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
Guaranteed to enchant, enthrall, and enmagick.
An elderly witch, a magical girl, a brave carpenter, a wise monster, a tiny dragon, paper birds, and a madwoman converge to thwart a magician who feeds on sorrow.
Every year Elders of the Protectorate leave a baby in the forest, warning everyone an evil Witch demands this sacrifice. In reality, every year, a kind witch named Xan rescues the babies and find families for them. One year Xan saves a baby girl with a crescent birthmark who accidentally feeds on moonlight and becomes “enmagicked.” Magic babies can be tricky, so Xan adopts little Luna herself and lovingly raises her, with help from an ancient swamp monster and a chatty, wee dragon. Luna’s magical powers emerge as her 13th birthday approaches. Meanwhile, Luna’s deranged real mother enters the forest to find her daughter. Simultaneously, a young carpenter from the Protectorate enters the forest to kill the Witch and end the sacrifices. Xan also enters the forest to rescue the next sacrificed child, and Luna, the monster, and the dragon enter the forest to protect Xan. In the dramatic denouement, a volcano erupts, the real villain attempts to destroy all, and love prevails. Replete with traditional motifs, this nontraditional fairy tale boasts sinister and endearing characters, magical elements, strong storytelling, and unleashed forces. Luna has black eyes, curly, black hair, and “amber” skin.
Guaranteed to enchant, enthrall, and enmagick. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-61620-567-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this...
Sentenced to a brutal juvenile detention camp for a crime he didn't commit, a wimpy teenager turns four generations of bad family luck around in this sunburnt tale of courage, obsession, and buried treasure from Sachar (Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger, 1995, etc.).
Driven mad by the murder of her black beau, a schoolteacher turns on the once-friendly, verdant town of Green Lake, Texas, becomes feared bandit Kissin' Kate Barlow, and dies, laughing, without revealing where she buried her stash. A century of rainless years later, lake and town are memories—but, with the involuntary help of gangs of juvenile offenders, the last descendant of the last residents is still digging. Enter Stanley Yelnats IV, great-grandson of one of Kissin' Kate's victims and the latest to fall to the family curse of being in the wrong place at the wrong time; under the direction of The Warden, a woman with rattlesnake venom polish on her long nails, Stanley and each of his fellow inmates dig a hole a day in the rock-hard lake bed. Weeks of punishing labor later, Stanley digs up a clue, but is canny enough to conceal the information of which hole it came from. Through flashbacks, Sachar weaves a complex net of hidden relationships and well-timed revelations as he puts his slightly larger-than-life characters under a sun so punishing that readers will be reaching for water bottles.
Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this rugged, engrossing adventure. (Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 978-0-374-33265-5
Page Count: 233
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2000
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