A debut with potential that explores friendship and identity.
Thai American besties discover new worlds.
Thirteen-year-olds Sofia and Cara have always been together, so it’s a relief that their families are both moving from Colorado to Los Angeles (their moms have the same employer). The pair have barely settled into their new homes when they’re whisked away to the kingdom of Tropos, a land of clouds. Horned, winged royal guards escort the girls to the palace, where Sofia, who struggles with panic attacks, is greeted with the revelation that she’s Jao Ying Saengfaa, the lost crown princess. Her royal parents sent her away as an infant to protect her from Muet, the leader of the Night Army. Muet is raging war, and she believes that Sofia is the key to conquering the three realms and reclaiming what she believes is rightfully hers. While the girls receive combat training, the Oracle drops hints about Cara’s role in the kingdom. The introspective third-person narration toggles among different characters’ perspectives, including that of octopuslike, shape-shifting Plaek, who’s Muet’s servant and is tasked with helping to carry out her campaign. While the premise of the novel and many of the plot twists are compelling, the quick buildup and easy resolutions of the climax and the somewhat pedestrian writing style will leave readers wishing for more depth. Lingering questions set the story up for a sequel.
A debut with potential that explores friendship and identity. (glossary) (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: June 25, 2024
ISBN: 9781960323149
Page Count: 372
Publisher: Shaherazad Shelves
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship.
A young tennis champion becomes the target of revenge.
In this sequel to Legacy and the Queen (2019), Legacy Petrin and her friends Javi and Pippa have returned to Legacy’s home province and the orphanage run by her father. With her friends’ help, she is in training to defend her championship when they discover that another player, operating under the protection of High Consul Silla, is presenting herself as Legacy. She is so convincing that the real Legacy is accused of being an imitation. False Legacy has become a hero to the masses, further strengthening Silla’s hold, and it becomes imperative to uncover and defeat her. If Legacy is to win again, she must play her imposter while disguised as someone else. Winning at tennis is not just about money and fame, but resisting Silla’s plans to send more young people into brutal mines with little hope of better lives. Legacy will have to overcome her fears and find the magic that allowed her to claim victory in the past. This story, with its elements of sports, fantasy, and social consciousness that highlight tensions between the powerful and those they prey upon, successfully continues the series conceived by late basketball superstar Bryant. As before, the tennis matches are depicted with pace and spirit. Legacy and Javi have brown skin; most other characters default to White.
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-949520-19-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Granity Studios
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
