An old-fashioned Arthurian-esque adventure for those who enjoy that genre’s satisfying storytelling pleasures.
Young Sir Tiuri, recently knighted following the events in The Letter for the King (2015), finds the adventure he seeks deep in the mysterious Wild Wood.
Restless after a winter spent at home following his knighting, Tiuri longs to become a traveling knight-errant. He and his squire, Piak, travel to meet knight-errant Sir Ristridin and his friends at Ristridin’s castle at the former’s invitation. However, once the party arrives there, they learn that Ristridin has not yet returned from his scouting mission into the Wild Wood, a forest shrouded in strange stories of “robbers and dangerous bands of men…woodland spirits and Men in Green.” Tiuri and Piak resolve to venture into the Wild Wood itself, following clues to Ristridin’s whereabouts. No sooner do they uncover their first hint as to what really happened to Ristridin and his men, than Tiuri is captured and taken prisoner by men of questionable loyalties. From there, this episodic adventure tale bounces between Tiuri’s narrow escapes from various forces inhabiting the Wild Wood and Piak’s attempts to alert the kingdom to the dangers that lie within and rescue his friend. The meandering pace of this lengthy adventure may prove frustrating for some, though the translation flows smoothly and may well appeal to young fans of knightly adventure tales. The book assumes a white default.
An old-fashioned Arthurian-esque adventure for those who enjoy that genre’s satisfying storytelling pleasures. (Historical adventure. 10-15)Pub Date: Dec. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-78269-195-2
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Pushkin Press
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli.
For two teenagers, a small town’s annual cautionary ritual becomes both a life- and a death-changing experience.
On the second Wednesday in June, every eighth grader in Amber Springs, Pennsylvania, gets a black shirt, the name and picture of a teen killed the previous year through reckless behavior—and the silent treatment from everyone in town. Like many of his classmates, shy, self-conscious Robbie “Worm” Tarnauer has been looking forward to Dead Wed as a day for cutting loose rather than sober reflection…until he finds himself talking to a strange girl or, as she would have it, “spectral maiden,” only he can see or touch. Becca Finch is as surprised and confused as Worm, only remembering losing control of her car on an icy slope that past Christmas Eve. But being (or having been, anyway) a more outgoing sort, she sees their encounter as a sign that she’s got a mission. What follows, in a long conversational ramble through town and beyond, is a day at once ordinary yet rich in discovery and self-discovery—not just for Worm, but for Becca too, with a climactic twist that leaves both ready, or readier, for whatever may come next. Spinelli shines at setting a tongue-in-cheek tone for a tale with serious underpinnings, and as in Stargirl (2000), readers will be swept into the relationship that develops between this adolescent odd couple. Characters follow a White default.
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli. (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-30667-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
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