An inventive book that offers wit, eccentric worldbuilding, and a look at magic’s dark side.
In Grolic’s middle-grade fantasy, a young girl is caught up in a threat to London’s hidden world of magic.
The author pulls readers in from the start with a description of the mysterious, soon-to-open Extraordinary Curiosities shop, located on a narrow London lane. When 11-year-old Chloe Ashley ducks into the place after school to avoid the rain, she’s surprised to find tiny, pointy-eared folk, tidying up and arranging shelves of oddities. After Chloe meets the magician proprietors of the shop—Mr. Ixworth (short and tweedy, “with one of those funny ‘I’ve a bit of chocolate on my lip’ moustaches”) and tall, nattily dressed Mr. Maddox (who’s never “one to use one word when two would do”)—it’s clear that her life will never be the same. Thrilled to discover that magic is real, Chloe is clued into wondrous merchandise that’s ordinarily shown only to magicians, including a magical flying taxi, spectacles that reveal “the paths of the departed,” and a “Memory Desk” for the forgetful. She becomes a welcome visitor to the shop and, before long, Mr. Maddox’s apprentice. One day, after Chloe is followed by a skeletal man with sharklike teeth, she finds that Mr. Ixworth is nowhere to be found. His nemesis, Oswin Blythe, is suspected of being behind other disappearances, but could there be a different, more horrific explanation? The author increases the momentum and the stakes of the story by widening the world of magicians, showing how they occupy strictly bordered realms, which they can lose through death, departure, or intrigue. Clever magical elements pepper the plot, including a spell-conjured pond, magic-detecting fish, travel via hat-rack, and comical and deadly potions. The character of Chloe, meanwhile, retains a relatable, human dimension; readers will relate to her plight as an outsider at school and as a daughter of busy parents who don’t take much notice of her, and this characterization gives believable weight to later, life-threatening tests of her intelligence and inner strength. Luckily, the author leaves some questions unanswered, making room for a sequel.
An inventive book that offers wit, eccentric worldbuilding, and a look at magic’s dark side.Pub Date: May 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781738870707
Page Count: 270
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship.
A young tennis champion becomes the target of revenge.
In this sequel to Legacy and the Queen (2019), Legacy Petrin and her friends Javi and Pippa have returned to Legacy’s home province and the orphanage run by her father. With her friends’ help, she is in training to defend her championship when they discover that another player, operating under the protection of High Consul Silla, is presenting herself as Legacy. She is so convincing that the real Legacy is accused of being an imitation. False Legacy has become a hero to the masses, further strengthening Silla’s hold, and it becomes imperative to uncover and defeat her. If Legacy is to win again, she must play her imposter while disguised as someone else. Winning at tennis is not just about money and fame, but resisting Silla’s plans to send more young people into brutal mines with little hope of better lives. Legacy will have to overcome her fears and find the magic that allowed her to claim victory in the past. This story, with its elements of sports, fantasy, and social consciousness that highlight tensions between the powerful and those they prey upon, successfully continues the series conceived by late basketball superstar Bryant. As before, the tennis matches are depicted with pace and spirit. Legacy and Javi have brown skin; most other characters default to White.
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-949520-19-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Granity Studios
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
An enthralling fantasy debut exploring exploitation by those in power.
Will 12-year-old Nura be able to outsmart the trickster jinn and save herself and her friends?
Nura lives in the fictional Pakistani town of Meerabagh, where she has worked mining mica to help support her family of five—her mother, herself, and her three younger siblings—since her father’s death. In the mines she has the company of her best friend, Faisal, who is teased by other kids for his stutter, and she enjoys small pleasures like splurging on gulab jamun. Although Maa wants Nura to stop working and attend school, she has no interest in classroom learning and hopes to save up to send her younger siblings to school instead so they can break the family’s cycle of poverty. Following a mining accident in which Faisal and others are lost in the rubble, Nura goes to the rescue. In her quest, she is plunged into the magical, glittering jinn realm, where nothing is as it seems. The author seamlessly weaves into the worldbuilding of the story commentary on real-life problems such as the ravages of child labor and systems that perpetuate inequities. An informative author’s note further explores present-day global cycles of oppression as well as the life-changing power of education. This action-packed story set in a Muslim community moves at a fast pace, with evocative writing that brings the fantasy world to life and lyrical imagery to describe emotions.
An enthralling fantasy debut exploring exploitation by those in power. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: July 5, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5795-6
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
