A wholeheartedly charming cast steers this witty and preposterous SF comedy.
Siblings in a new, gleefully bizarre city have the chance to protect Earth from an interplanetary threat in Swetnam’s debut and SF series launch.
Clarissa and Joey Straw know right away that the city they’re moving to is a bit offbeat: On the train ride into Fennario, the teen and her little brother meet Cleocatra, a talking cat. She’s definitely someone they’ll need to talk to, since Cleo is in charge of Fennario,and her banning of ribbons prohibits the kids’ seamstress mother from opening her new shop. Cleo’s willing to lift that ban, provided Clarissa and Joey complete a mission to “deal” with The Mostly Monster. This is actually the first of several tasks Cleo assigns the siblings, who mingle with the likes of Donnie the Dogicorn and a spaceship-piloting, trench coat–donning figure called the Medic. Something big is underway: Cleo and others are trying to stop nefarious aliens from attacking Earth. The siblings join this undaunted group, whose plan for safeguarding their planet entails a lot of precision and trickery. Swetnam’s deliberately nonsensical plot drops Clarissa and Joey into perplexing circumstances as they endeavor to fulfill their tasks’ rather odd purposes. This opening installment initiates a story with nominal character development, with Cleo overtly listing the siblings’ individual traits. Still, the abundance of silliness on display is great fun, from the zany cast (including magic pirates and the Clown Collective) to characters impulsively naming things (like dubbing an essential planet Fuzzybutt or the evil aliens Filthbuckets). The narrative gradually sharpens its focus once everyone works together to protect Earth; the settings alternate between earthly regions and outer space. Swetnam wisely opts for simplicity in many descriptions, as in the case of The Mostly Monster, who’s primarily huge and clawed. (“The beast stood upright and wrapped his large clawed hand entirely around the wolf’s head and popped it off like he was pulling the petal from a flower.”) A spaceship’s interior resembles that of a private jet’s. Mysteries surrounding the peculiar city of Fennario and the Straw family will surely be expanded upon in sequels.
A wholeheartedly charming cast steers this witty and preposterous SF comedy.Pub Date: June 8, 2023
ISBN: 9798397637480
Page Count: 181
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Feb. 29, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.
In Florence’s middle-grade fantasy novel, a young girl’s heart is tested in the face of an evil, spreading Darkness.
Eleven-year-old Lydia, “freckle-cheeked and round-eyed, with hair the color of pine bark and fair skin,” is struggling with the knowledge that she has reached the age to apprentice as an herbalist. Lydia is reluctant to leave her beloved, magical Mulberry Glen and her cozy Housetree in the woods—she’ll miss Garder, the Glen’s respected philosopher; her fairy guardian Pit; her human friend Livy; and even the mischievous part-elf, part-imp, part-human twins Zale and Zamilla. But the twins go missing after hearing of a soul-sapping Darkness that has swallowed a forest and is creeping into minds and engulfing entire towns. They have secretly left to find a rare fruit that, it is said, will stop the Darkness if thrown into the heart of the mountain that rises out of the lethal forest. Lydia follows, determined to find the twins before they, too, fall victim to the Darkness. During her journey, accompanied by new friends, she gradually realizes that she herself has a dangerous role to play in the quest to stop the Darkness. In this well-crafted fantasy, Florence skillfully equates the physical manifestation of Darkness with the feelings of insecurity and powerlessness that Lydia first struggles with when thinking of leaving the Glen. Such negative thoughts grow more intrusive the closer she and her friends come to the Darkness—and to Lydia’s ultimate, powerfully rendered test of character, which leads to a satisfyingly realistic, not quite happily-ever-after ending. Highlights include a delightfully haunting, reality-shifting library and a deft sprinkling of Latin throughout the text; Pit’s pet name for Lydia is mea flosculus (“my little flower”). Fine-lined ink drawings introducing each chapter add a pleasing visual element to this well-grounded fairy tale.
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781956393095
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Waxwing Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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