A rollicking adventure.
It’s a new school year at Neo-Earth Junior High, and seventh grader Kira is determined to start afresh.
This year, she’s sure to be cool and popular! But when Tulip, whom Kira has long seen as her rival, steals the spotlight on the first day, Kira can’t help feeling like an absolute nobody yet again. While wishing upon a star, her life abruptly changes when Catacorn, a half-cat/half unicorn space princess, crash-lands in her garbage can. Could this really be Kira’s chance to become a magical girl like Tulip and have a higher purpose? Brimming with sparkly, chaotic energy, this fast-paced, laugh-out-loud adventure is a love letter to anime and manga like Sailor Moon. Readers will delight in the charming illustrations, rendered in a pastel color palette, that pay homage to the aesthetics of the genre in a fresh way. The story is complete with the familiar beats of magical transformations, cheesy catchphrases, a charismatic villain, and a mysterious boy from out of town. Over-the-top facial expressions perfectly capture the excitable highs and emotional lows of preteen friendships. Tweens will relate to Kira’s desire for reinvention and self-discovery and her awkward and goofy attempts to stand out. Although the story has an abundance of unresolved mysteries, it sets the stage for a fun second installment. Kira has glossy black hair and light tan skin; Tulip has brown skin and curly pink hair.
A rollicking adventure. (author’s note, additional comics, character sketches) (Graphic fantasy. 8-13)Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9780593177549
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Random House Graphic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2024
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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