A bit of Celtic charm.
Ben and his silent younger sister, Saoirse, find themselves on an extraordinary journey.
Stills and some added bits of art reproduce the plot of Moore’s lovely, hand-drawn 2014 animated film, adding an introductory backstory about the children’s selkie mother. Six-year-old Saoirse doesn’t speak, but she can produce a tune from the spiral seashell given to Ben by their mother, calling forth magical lights. As the siblings trek back from the city to their lighthouse home, they must defend themselves against Macha, the Owl Witch, and recover their mother’s selkie coat in order to save themselves, their family, and the faeries. Unattributed lines from Yeats’ “The Stolen Child” set the mood of magic and danger at the intersection of human and faerie. The rich palette in browns, blues, and greens, plus design elements hinting of swirls of Celtic knots and spirals, contributes to the sense of an enchanted countryside. The light-skinned children are sweetly drawn, with round faces, rosy cheeks, and large eyes. Less might have been more here: The narrative, carried by action and dialogue from the original script, has a sense of busyness that can overwhelm the awe and humor of the plot. Even so, the echoes of ancient tales reenacted by contemporary children in a family struggling with loss and reconciliation offer something for thoughtful adventurers. A short tale about a couple who adopt a seal child is appended as a bonus.
A bit of Celtic charm. (glossary) (Graphic fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: March 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-316-43891-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
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
BOOK REVIEW
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
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