A cliffhanger ending compels a return to this absorbing Indigenous fantasy.
Morgan and Eli return to Askí in this sequel to The Barren Grounds (2020).
Actually, the Cree foster siblings have been returning nightly, taking advantage of the different passage of time between Earth and Askí to stay in the village of Misewa for weeks while their foster parents sleep. Their joy in staying with the animal beings of Misewa is tempered by the loss of the old fisher Ochek. On Earth, Eli is bullied at school so relentlessly he cuts off his braid, and their foster parents (who are White) have thrown Morgan for a loop by giving her the telephone number of her birth mother—whom the eighth grader hasn’t seen since she was taken away as a toddler. So when Eli proposes changing their portal to go to a time when Ochek is young, Morgan agrees. Their ensuing adventure is something of an idyll, giving the kids a glimpse of a peaceful, prosperous Misewa. Readers of Volume 1 will enjoy this new aspect on favorite characters just as much as Morgan and Eli do, especially the squirrel Arik and teenage Ochek. The struggle against the rampaging Great Bear—shockingly, a younger version of wise village elder Muskwa—drives the action. Robertson’s (Norway House Cree Nation) nods at the complexity of time-travel plots serve as wry metafictive commentary and also tie into his consideration of profound existential questions.
A cliffhanger ending compels a return to this absorbing Indigenous fantasy. (glossary) (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 28, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7352-6613-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Puffin/Penguin Random House Canada
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Some readers may feel that the resolution comes a mite too easily, but most will enjoy the journey and be pleased when...
Two sisters make an unauthorized expedition to their former hometown and in the process bring together the two parts of their divided family.
Dooley packs plenty of emotion into this eventful road trip, which takes place over the course of less than 24 hours. Twelve-year-old Ophelia, nicknamed Fella, and her 16-year-old sister, Zoey Grace, aka Zany, are the daughters of a lesbian couple, Shannon and Lacy, who could not legally marry. The two white girls squabble and share memories as they travel from West Virginia to Asheville, North Carolina, where Zany is determined to scatter Mama Lacy’s ashes in accordance with her wishes. The year is 2004, before the Supreme Court decision on gay marriage, and the girls have been separated by hostile, antediluvian custodial laws. Fella’s present-tense narration paints pictures not just of the difficulties they face on the trip (a snowstorm, car trouble, and an unlikely thief among them), but also of their lives before Mama Lacy’s illness and of the ways that things have changed since then. Breathless and engaging, Fella’s distinctive voice is convincingly childlike. The conversations she has with her sister, as well as her insights about their relationship, likewise ring true. While the girls face serious issues, amusing details and the caring adults in their lives keep the tone relatively light.
Some readers may feel that the resolution comes a mite too easily, but most will enjoy the journey and be pleased when Fella’s family figures out how to come together in a new way . (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-16504-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 31, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
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