A fitting, heartfelt conclusion to this thought-provoking, nuanced fantasy series.
The teddies discover the answers to their greatest mysteries in this trilogy finale.
Picking up where They Stole Our Hearts (2021) left off, the remaining teddies—Sunny, Reginald, Nothing, and their committed leader, Buddy—have found Proto, the first Furrington Teddy made by the Creator. Once again, the teddies set off on a mission, this time to the courthouse to find the Suit who made them dangerous to children. And once again, their plans take them in unexpected directions as they don armor to attend a community protest against the Suit and help a human kid with scars of his own find his place in the world. In this volume, which is less adventurous than the first two, Kraus brings the story full circle, revealing the answer to the question that kicked off the saga—why the teddies were thrown away—and remembering the stalwart teddy pals lost along the way while finding redemption amid loss. As Buddy continues to grapple with friendship, anger, death, and being a leader, the end of his existential journey is really a new beginning in growing up. Young readers, too, will leave the saga changed, recognizing, through Buddy, the ups and downs of life and their own burgeoning independence. Final art not seen.
A fitting, heartfelt conclusion to this thought-provoking, nuanced fantasy series. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-22444-6
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious.
If you made a recording to be heard by the aliens who found the iPod, what would you record?
For 11-year-old Alex Petroski, it's easy. He records everything. He records the story of how he travels to New Mexico to a rocket festival with his dog, Carl Sagan, and his rocket. He records finding out that a man with the same name and birthday as his dead father has an address in Las Vegas. He records eating at Johnny Rockets for the first time with his new friends, who are giving him a ride to find his dead father (who might not be dead!), and losing Carl Sagan in the wilds of Las Vegas, and discovering he has a half sister. He even records his own awful accident. Cheng delivers a sweet, soulful debut novel with a brilliant, refreshing structure. His characters manage to come alive through the “transcript” of Alex’s iPod recording, an odd medium that sounds like it would be confusing but really works. Taking inspiration from the Voyager Golden Record released to space in 1977, Alex, who explains he has “light brown skin,” records all the important moments of a journey that takes him from a family of two to a family of plenty.
Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-18637-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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
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