Heroic feats aplenty amid explorations of rich cultural and personal landscapes.
A grieving 12-year-old from North Carolina finds comfort, a sense of purpose, and epic adventures in the afterlife.
Kwame is reluctant to travel with his parents to Ghana for a celebration of the life of his beloved, sorely missed grandmother. He feels out of place there, not Ghanaian enough for his relatives. So what changes his mind? Perhaps it’s meeting his grandmother as a dynamic child of about his age following an involuntary leap into the underworld of Asamando? Or learning that he carries a fragment of Asase Yaa, Mother Earth? Or it might be facing threats including a sea monster and Asase’s conniving sons Tano the river god and Nansi the trickster. He also repeatedly rescues and is rescued by his game-loving, longtime bestie, Autumn Choi, who leaps intrepidly after him from the living world brandishing a sword she bought online and a fierce attitude honed by years of being bullied for being hard of hearing (the friends communicate using ASL) as well as Black and Korean. Ultimately, Kwame understands that he’s American by birth but Ghanian by heritage—and that, through his connection with Asase, he’s charged with everyone on Earth. Debut author Farmer tells a grand tale, funny and terrifying in turns, steeped in Ghanaian spirituality and folklore, and wrapped around themes of identity, obligation, true friendship, and devastating loss. Readers will come away admiring Kwame and the redoubtable Autumn.
Heroic feats aplenty amid explorations of rich cultural and personal landscapes. (map, author’s note, glossary) (Fantasy. 9-13)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9781250900265
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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BOOK TO SCREEN
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
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