A fast-paced adventure sure to transport young history buffs and action enthusiasts.
When two seventh-grade boys leave for a summer of archaeological digging, they find themselves unexpectedly transported to the Middle Ages.
Tyler and his best friend, Brandon, are typical seventh graders with no plans for the summer. They learn that professor Fielding Atlas, a modern-day Indiana Jones and the boys’ television hero, plans to select two young assistants to accompany him on a free trip to England to search for the long-lost Summoning Dagger of Mercastus. When the boys are selected to accompany Atlas on the dig, they find that they’re not the only ones interested in the dagger: The professor’s rivals are prepared to use deadly force to beat them to it. When, at a critical moment, the dagger appears to save Atlas and the boys from certain death, they discover that they’ve been transported back to the 12th century. Atlas and the boys must overcome language and cultural barriers as they seek to understand why they were sent back in time and how to get home. When they come face to face with the wizard Mercastus himself, the former owner of the Summoning Dagger, they discover that they were brought there for a reason: If they ever wish to return to their own time, the three outsiders must save the small medieval village of Hallswich. In this historical-fantasy debut novel, Maguire makes history, science and technology fun as he weaves them into a witty medieval adventure story sure to entice young readers. While the use of dream sequences and time travel offer slightly unsatisfying resolutions to conflicts within the plot, the story’s flow isn’t compromised. Readers will be eager to join Atlas and the boys on another adventure in the series’ next installment.
A fast-paced adventure sure to transport young history buffs and action enthusiasts.Pub Date: July 13, 2011
ISBN: 978-1457505096
Page Count: 220
Publisher: Dog Ear
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A prototypical survival story: after an airplane crash, a 13-year-old city boy spends two months alone in the Canadian wilderness. In transit between his divorcing parents, Brian is the plane's only passenger. After casually showing him how to steer, the pilot has a heart attack and dies. In a breathtaking sequence, Brian maneuvers the plane for hours while he tries to think what to do, at last crashing as gently and levelly as he can manage into a lake. The plane sinks; all he has left is a hatchet, attached to his belt. His injuries prove painful but not fundamental. In time, he builds a shelter, experiments with berries, finds turtle eggs, starts a fire, makes a bow and arrow to catch fish and birds, and makes peace with the larger wildlife. He also battles despair and emerges more patient, prepared to learn from his mistakes—when a rogue moose attacks him and a fierce storm reminds him of his mortality, he's prepared to make repairs with philosophical persistence. His mixed feelings surprise him when the plane finally surfaces so that he can retrieve the survival pack; and then he's rescued. Plausible, taut, this is a spellbinding account. Paulsen's staccato, repetitive style conveys Brian's stress; his combination of third-person narrative with Brian's interior monologue pulls the reader into the story. Brian's angst over a terrible secret—he's seen his mother with another man—is undeveloped and doesn't contribute much, except as one item from his previous life that he sees in better perspective, as a result of his experience. High interest, not hard to read. A winner.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1987
ISBN: 1416925082
Page Count: -
Publisher: Bradbury
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1987
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