Your new favorite fantasy.
The fate of amnesiac magical exiles and their adopted xenophobic hometown depends on a girl, some chalk, and her singular power.
Rook makes doors, but she’s not a carpenter. She uses chalk and the magic that courses through her to open portals. She and a boatload of magical kids were shipped parentless from the world of Vora into the harbor of Regara minutes before an explosion closed the portal between worlds, erased the memories of the Voran children, and made Regarans instantly distrust magic. Voran orphans have been corralled and a wall built (sound familiar?) to dam up magic residue from the Great Catastrophe. In the aftermath, Rook has joined forces with Drift (who can “fly” by manipulating air) to make a home, sell black-market doors, and avoid authorities. Regara’s inability to endure the strain of leftover magic makes Rook desperate to get Drift and herself to Vora (not the mysterious forest that keeps appearing when she draws doors). This need accelerates when their income is compromised and the twosome adds another: a shape-shifting boy aptly named Fox. The exquisite worldbuilding will please steadfast fans of Johnson’s other Solace books. The Voran magic isn’t a gimmick, as it causes complications, unpredictability, and danger. Rook, Drift, and Fox are white, and there are some supporting olive and brown characters. Apropos themes of refugees and found families are addressed in a way that retains fantasy flavor while realistically presenting the brutality of ignorance and beauty of humanity.
Your new favorite fantasy. (maps) (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: July 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-101-93316-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018
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PROFILES
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel.
Sure signs that the creative wells are running dry at last, the Captain’s ninth, overstuffed outing both recycles a villain (see Book 4) and offers trendy anti-bullying wish fulfillment.
Not that there aren’t pranks and envelope-pushing quips aplenty. To start, in an alternate ending to the previous episode, Principal Krupp ends up in prison (“…a lot like being a student at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School, except that the prison had better funding”). There, he witnesses fellow inmate Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) escape in a giant Robo-Suit (later reduced to time-traveling trousers). The villain sets off after George and Harold, who are in juvie (“not much different from our old school…except that they have library books here.”). Cut to five years previous, in a prequel to the whole series. George and Harold link up in kindergarten to reduce a quartet of vicious bullies to giggling insanity with a relentless series of pranks involving shaving cream, spiders, effeminate spoof text messages and friendship bracelets. Pilkey tucks both topical jokes and bathroom humor into the cartoon art, and ups the narrative’s lexical ante with terms like “pharmaceuticals” and “theatrical flair.” Unfortunately, the bullies’ sad fates force Krupp to resign, so he’s not around to save the Earth from being destroyed later on by Talking Toilets and other invaders…
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-17534-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
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
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