Imagination soars in this smart, humorous, visually captivating approach to a scientific concept.
In this physics-themed fantasy, an elf’s quest to prevent entropy has unintended consequences.
What is entropy, and what would happen without it? Originally published in the Czech Republic, this new U.S. edition of co-authors Klárová and Končinský’s book (translated by Oakland) is a don’t-miss for science-minded middle schoolers. Set in a wildly inventive world, “entropic elves,” invisible to humans, create disorder and chaos. The book’s lively, relatable narrator, Typo, a young elf in third grade at the Primary School for Aging Things, speaks directly to readers, explaining that all things inevitably become older, damaged, or lost thanks to the work of the entropic elves. (And today’s built-in obsolescence, he enthuses, is a golden age for the elves: “never before has aging occurred at such speed.”) Typo’s specialty is mistakes in published works. His best friend Skim excels at cocoa spilling (one page of the text in Štěpán’s inspired book design features a realistic cocoa stain). Typo considered entropy to be the elves’ noble calling, he says, until the day his faith was shaken: During a field trip to a human bakery, his creative misspelling of a little girl’s name on her birthday cake made her cry. Within the authors’ clever, informational framework, faintly reminiscent of The Phantom Tollbooth (1961), Typo recounts how he set out, with a talking dung beetle as his guide, to find entropy’s master, the legendary Cog of Time, and stop the process of aging and disorder. Špaček’s illustrations encompass witty, full-page, full-color imaginings of the elves’ busy, messy world and cartoon renderings, in color and black and white, of the characters, their gadgetry, and more, on text pages. With various font sizes for emphasis and eccentric juxtapositions of text, illustrations, and chapter titles in large, transparent blue letters, Petr Štěpán’s design adds to the book’s delights.
Imagination soars in this smart, humorous, visually captivating approach to a scientific concept.Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2022
ISBN: 979-8-9858-7871-4
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Val de Grace
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An epic fantasy with timeless themes and unforgettable characters.
Two young people save the world and all the magic in it in this series opener.
When tall, dark-haired, white-skinned Christopher Forrester goes to stay with his grandfather in Scotland, he ventures to the top of a forbidden hill and discovers astonishing magical creatures. His grandfather explains that Christopher’s family are guardians of the “way through” to the Archipelago, where the Glimourie Tree grows—the source of glimourie, or the world’s magic. Black-haired, olive-skinned Mal Arvorian, a girl from the Archipelago, is being pursued by a murderer, and she asks Christopher for help, launching them both on a wild, dangerous journey to discover why the glimourie is disappearing and how to stop it. Together with a part-nereid woman, a ratatoska, a dragon, and a Berserker, they face an odyssey of dangerous tasks to find the Immortal, the only one who can reverse the draining of magic. Like Lyra and Will from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, Mal and Christopher sacrifice their innocence for experience, meeting every challenge with depthless courage until they finally reach the maze at the heart of it all. Rundell throws myriad obstacles in her characters’ way, but she gives them tools both tangible (a casapasaran, which always points the way home, and the glamry blade, which cuts through anything) and intangible (the desire “to protect something worth protecting” and an “insistence that the world is worth loving”). Final art not seen.
An epic fantasy with timeless themes and unforgettable characters. (map, bestiary) (Fantasy. 10-16)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9780593809860
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
A pleasing premise for book lovers.
A fantasy-loving bookworm makes a wonderful, terrible bargain.
When sixth grader Poppy Woodlock’s historic preservationist parents move the family to the Oregon coast to work on the titular stately home, Poppy’s sure she’ll find magic. Indeed, the exiled water nymph in the manor’s ruined swimming pool grants a wish, but: “Magic isn’t free. It cosssts.” The price? Poppy’s favorite book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In return she receives Sampson, a winged lion cub who is everything Poppy could have hoped for. But she soon learns that the nymph didn’t take just her own physical book—she erased Narnia from Poppy’s world. And it’s just the first loss: Soon, Poppy’s grandmother’s journal’s gone, then The Odyssey, and more. The loss is heartbreaking, but Sampson’s a wonderful companion, particularly as Poppy’s finding middle school a tough adjustment. Hartman’s premise is beguiling—plenty of readers will identify with Poppy, both as a fellow bibliophile and as a kid struggling to adapt. Poppy’s repeatedly expressed faith that unveiling Sampson will bring some sort of vindication wears thin, but that does not detract from the central drama. It’s a pity that the named real-world books Poppy reads are notably lacking in diversity; a story about the power of literature so limited in imagination lets both itself and readers down. Main characters are cued White; there is racial diversity in the supporting cast. Chapters open with atmospheric spot art. (This review has been updated to reflect the final illustrations.)
A pleasing premise for book lovers. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9780316448222
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
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