Readers will recognize much that is familiar and appealing in this alternate universe
In a society where everyone has a neatly defined magical talent, Nory is a misfit.
There are Flares, Fuzzies, Flickers, and Flyers, each having particular skills. Nory is a Fluxer, able to transform herself into an animal. But her magic is wonky. Her kitten mixes with a beaver or a dragon, and she has no control over it. When she fails the entrance exam for her father’s school, Nory feels that she is a complete failure. Her father sends her to live with her aunt to attend a school that has an experimental class for students whose magic doesn’t fit the prescribed methods. Her aunt is welcoming, accepting, and loving. With the guidance of her very wise teacher, Nory makes friends with other children who are dealing with all sorts of uncontrolled magic. After many false starts and a brave adventure, she learns to embrace her out-of the-norm gifts. The authors nicely balance interesting and original magic elements with family and middle school dynamics. Likable Nory is prickly, needy, and determined as she rebounds from every disappointment, but her relationship with her father is a constant source of pain that is never resolved. The narrative voice is not omniscient, never reaching beyond 10-year-old Nory’s emotional understanding.
Readers will recognize much that is familiar and appealing in this alternate universe . (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-545-80045-7
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
Not the most satisfying wrap-up, but it’s always good to spend time in the world of this series.
Beloved gorilla Ivan becomes a father to rambunctious twins in this finale to a quartet that began with 2012’s Newbery Award–winning The One and Only Ivan.
Life hasn’t always been easy for silverback gorilla Ivan, who’s spent most of his life being mistreated in captivity. Now he’s living in a wildlife sanctuary, but he still gets to see his two best friends. Young elephant Ruby lives in the grassy habitat next door, and former stray dog Bob has a home with one of the zookeepers. All three were rescued from the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade. Ivan’s expanded world includes fellow gorilla Kinyani—the two are about to become parents, and Ivan is revisiting the traumas of his past in light of what he wants the twins to know. When the subject inevitably comes up, Applegate’s trust and respect for readers is evident. She doesn’t shy away from hard truths as Ivan wrestles with the fact that poachers killed his family. Readers will need the context provided by knowledge of the earlier books to feel the full emotional impact of this story. The rushed ending unfortunately falls flat, detracting from the central message that a complex life can still contain hope. Final art not seen.
Not the most satisfying wrap-up, but it’s always good to spend time in the world of this series. (gorilla games, glossary, author’s note) (Verse fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9780063221123
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
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