A rich story with plenty of surprising plot twists and a strong undercurrent of female empowerment; kudos for the reminder...
In this middle-grade fantasy, orphan Anthea is sent from Coronam to live with her uncle beyond the Wall, where she learns that not everything she was taught to believe is the truth.
Coronam—a kingdom that fears horses as monsters—is all Anthea knows until she is sent to live at her uncle Andrew’s in the Exiled Lands beyond the Wall. The Wall, Coronami children are taught, was built to protect them from the plague-bearing horses that nearly destroyed the kingdom centuries ago. Anthea, not remembering she was born at Last Farm, her uncle’s estate, is horrified to discover that he raises horses. Then she re-meets Florian, a stallion she had a special bond with as a small child, and experiences the Way: the ability to communicate telepathically with the horses. George’s plot is original and taut, and the tension ramps up when Anthea learns that the Coronami have not told the truth about the Wall or the horses. The relationship Anthea has with her cousin Jilly is both adversarial and affectionate, and sparklingly authentic, and Anthea and Florian’s bond, emphasized by narrative segments from Florian’s perspective, steers clear of maudlin. The book subscribes to the white default.
A rich story with plenty of surprising plot twists and a strong undercurrent of female empowerment; kudos for the reminder to readers that what lives beyond a Wall may be a lot like them. (Fantasy.10-14)Pub Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-59990-647-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
A thrilling first installment in an adventurous new series.
An orphaned street urchin is recruited into an elite school for thieves.
In an alternate world where France is the dominant world power, 13-year-old Tom Morgan has had to scrimp, starve, and steal on the streets of London to survive. Born into a workhouse, he doesn’t know anything about his father, while his mother may have been from North Africa. One thing he does know is the sort of cruelty that awaits the poor who are sent to the workhouse, and he’s determined not to go back. But when their camp is raided and his friends are captured by workhouse agents, the only thing Tom can think of is how to get them out. Enter the Corsair, a cunning and mysterious man with a proposition: He wants to recruit Tom into Beaufort’s School for Deceptive Arts. From nabbing treasures to forging identity papers, Beaufort’s promises to teach Tom everything he needs to know to become a Shadow Thief and a member of the Shadow League, the secret global organization that helps keep the world’s political power in balance. But Beaufort’s has its own rules and secrets, and if Tom is to survive long enough to help his friends, he’ll need to figure them out quickly. Clever and gripping, this fast-paced boarding school story will appeal to fans of the Mysterious Benedict Society and Spy School series.
A thrilling first installment in an adventurous new series. (Adventure. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9781665982283
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
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
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