Memorable bedtime story targeted for an audience as large as a bull's-eye on the side of a barn. The book is catalogued for January but will be shipped to bookstores in early November for Thanksgiving sales. Few readers will not find some tie between this story of a silenced father-storyteller and Rushdie's death sentence from the Ayatollah Khomeini—but it's a tie not stressed by the author. Perhaps the brightest aspect of the book is its bubbling good humor and witty dialogue, and then its often superb writing: "There was once, in the country of Alifbay, a sad city, the saddest of cities, a city so ruinously sad that it had forgotten its name. It stood by a mournful sea full of glumfish, which were so miserable to eat that they made people belch with melancholy even though the skies were blue." (Alifbay, the glossary here tells us, comes from the Hindustani word for "alphabet.") The story: In the town of K, the Shah of Blah, Rashid Khalifa, a renowned storyteller and the father of Haroun, is deserted by his wife exactly at 11:00 a.m. and loses his power to tell stories. Haroun too loses the power to concentrate longer than 11 minutes. What's more, he insults his father's stories, calling them untrue, but then feels deep guilt for adding to his father's despair. In a P2C2E (a Process Too Complicated To Explain), it seems that most of Rashid's problems are part of the Great Story Sea becoming polluted and the Supplier of Story Water shutting down Rashid's supply. As a Water Genie explains to Haroun: "The gentleman no longer requires the service; has discontinued narrative activities, thrown in the towel, packed it in. He has cancelled his subscription: Hence my presence, for purposes of Disconnection." Which is the typical tumbling Rushdie jumpcat spoken by all and by Miss Blabbermouth, otherwise known as the Princess Batcheat Chattergy (batcheat= "baat-cheet" or chitchat), held prisoner in the Citadel of Chup, a castle built entirely of black ice. Parted from Rashid, Haroun on his own fights Khattum-Shud, who shuts down stories, and purifies the story waters in the Ocean of the Stream of Stories. A strong winner, though the storyline fades in and out of the prose—a fault that may pass unnoticed if the book's not read in one sitting.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1990
ISBN: 0140157379
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Granta/Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1990
Sky-based pyrotechnics make for a fun if somewhat confusing telling.
In this collaboration between sci-fi novelist Sanderson and Amulet creator Kibuishi, an unreliable narrator informs readers that here be no dragons.
“A boy sat in a chair.” The book opens on a bespectacled, light-skinned child in old-fashioned attire. The narration continues, “That’s it. He just sat in a chair,” while on the opposite page, the boy’s chair has unexpectedly whisked him heavenward. The narrator attempts to convince readers that just sitting in a chair is boring. As the story continues, however, the boy is attacked by an array of sky ruffians operating vessels; fight scenes and impressive explosions ensue. A dragon makes an appearance as the narrator drones on about how dull the story is. Kibuishi’s detailed cartoon images depict an enticing steampunk-esque world. Adults reading this book to kids might want to read the text first without the pictures; on a second run they can show off the images, neatly illustrating the important interplay of text and visuals in sequential art. Unfortunately, for all that the illustrations maintain the action at a fair clip, near the end the plot grows muddled as the boy gets out of his chair but then tumbles to the ground: Was he falling and then trying to stop himself? Some adult intervention may be required to clarify what precisely is happening on the page.
Sky-based pyrotechnics make for a fun if somewhat confusing telling. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2024
ISBN: 9781250843661
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
An epic fantasy with timeless themes and unforgettable characters.
Two young people save the world and all the magic in it in this series opener.
When tall, dark-haired, white-skinned Christopher Forrester goes to stay with his grandfather in Scotland, he ventures to the top of a forbidden hill and discovers astonishing magical creatures. His grandfather explains that Christopher’s family are guardians of the “way through” to the Archipelago, where the Glimourie Tree grows—the source of glimourie, or the world’s magic. Black-haired, olive-skinned Mal Arvorian, a girl from the Archipelago, is being pursued by a murderer, and she asks Christopher for help, launching them both on a wild, dangerous journey to discover why the glimourie is disappearing and how to stop it. Together with a part-nereid woman, a ratatoska, a dragon, and a Berserker, they face an odyssey of dangerous tasks to find the Immortal, the only one who can reverse the draining of magic. Like Lyra and Will from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, Mal and Christopher sacrifice their innocence for experience, meeting every challenge with depthless courage until they finally reach the maze at the heart of it all. Rundell throws myriad obstacles in her characters’ way, but she gives them tools both tangible (a casapasaran, which always points the way home, and the glamry blade, which cuts through anything) and intangible (the desire “to protect something worth protecting” and an “insistence that the world is worth loving”). Final art not seen.
An epic fantasy with timeless themes and unforgettable characters. (map, bestiary) (Fantasy. 10-16)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9780593809860
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
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