Easy-to-follow action and touches of humor smooth out unsubtle elements.
A year after the events of Wild & Chance (2020), superdog Wild reunites with her human, Chance, when both are threatened.
Wild’s luck runs out when she’s finally caught by an Uber-driving Russian goon who manages to drug and capture her—ultimately leading to an intense aerial action scene. An overheard comment indicates they’re after Chance, too, so Wild decides to go to him after having stayed away to keep him safe. Following an awkward reunion, they’re soon back to their old tricks, including a daring escape in a stolen car and enlisting hacker Junebug’s help. With Maelstrom defeated, they’re now dealing with CAT (Canine Action Team), a band of Russian genetic scientists so nefarious they’ve been exiled from Russia. CAT is battling it out with rival company Puppio, a maker of genetically engineered puppies that is helmed by a familiar friendly face. Amid all the plot twists, there are prominent themes of abandonment and complicated parent-child relationships, especially concerning obligations. Though a bit heavy-handed, these thematic moments quickly make way for betrayals and desperate action scenes that endanger Wild’s life. The somewhat abrupt ending gets the characters out of immediate danger, leaving many plot threads dangling as setup for the next book. While racial descriptors for human characters are absent (resulting in a White default), diversity is implied occasionally through characters’ names.
Easy-to-follow action and touches of humor smooth out unsubtle elements. (Science fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5621-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
Entrancing and uplifting.
A small dog, the elderly woman who owns him, and a homeless girl come together to create a tale of serendipity.
Piper, almost 12, her parents, and her younger brother are at the bottom of a long slide toward homelessness. Finally in a family shelter, Piper finds that her newfound safety gives her the opportunity to reach out to someone who needs help even more. Jewel, mentally ill, lives in the park with her dog, Baby. Unwilling to leave her pet, and forbidden to enter the shelter with him, she struggles with the winter weather. Ree, also homeless and with a large dog, helps when she can, but after Jewel gets sick and is hospitalized, Baby’s taken to the animal shelter, and Ree can’t manage the complex issues alone. It’s Piper, using her best investigative skills, who figures out Jewel’s backstory. Still, she needs all the help of the shelter Firefly Girls troop that she joins to achieve her accomplishment: to raise enough money to provide Jewel and Baby with a secure, hopeful future and, maybe, with their kindness, to inspire a happier story for Ree. Told in the authentic alternating voices of loving child and loyal dog, this tale could easily slump into a syrupy melodrama, but Pyron lets her well-drawn characters earn their believable happy ending, step by challenging step, by reaching out and working together. Piper, her family, and Jewel present white; Pyron uses hair and naming convention, respectively, to cue Ree as black and Piper’s friend Gabriela as Latinx.
Entrancing and uplifting. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-283922-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
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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