by A.M. Dassu ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 11, 2022
This group of committed friends will win readers’ hearts.
Thirteen-year-old Aaliyah is attending a K-pop concert in Lambert, England, with her friends when an explosion sends the audience stampeding to safety.
Mum and Dad have agreed to allow Aaliyah to attend her first concert. With her are Lisa, who is White; Sukhi, who is Indian Sikh; and Sukhi’s 21-year-old sister, Harpreet. Aaliyah’s Muslim family has connections to Tanzania, Pakistan, India, and Iraq. A panic-inducing terrorist attack was not part of their plans. Mayhem erupts as the girls escape. Outside, Aaliyah is relieved to see Lisa’s brother, Darren—until he spews anti-Muslim venom at her. The aftermath of these events leaves Aaliyah feeling anxious in crowds, and she finds comfort in her hospitalized neighbor’s cat, which she hides in her room; her parents had already vetoed her campaign to get a cat of her own. The Islamophobic harassment escalates along with bullying at school and a menacing White Zone hate group led by Darren. Aaliyah decides to empower herself by donning a hijab to remind the world that being Muslim does not equate to being dangerous; she also learns that her mother started wearing the hijab after 9/11. The attention-grabbing writing style and intensifying pace suit the storyline, and characters develop in plausible ways. Hope is interjected into the serious tone as Black, Jewish, and Chinese classmates, among others, share their experiences and help Aaliyah and her friends take action against racism and xenophobia.
This group of committed friends will win readers’ hearts. (guidance for allies, glossary, author’s note) (Fiction. 11-14)Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64379-588-1
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Tu Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022
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by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 14, 2013
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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BOOK TO SCREEN
by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 21, 2015
Ultimately more than a little full of itself, but well-stocked with big themes, inventively spun fairy-tale tropes, and...
Good has won every fairy-tale contest with Evil for centuries, but a dark sorcerer’s scheme to turn the tables comes to fruition in this ponderous closer.
Broadening conflict swirls around frenemies Agatha and Sophie as the latter joins rejuvenated School Master Rafal, who has dispatched an army of villains from Capt. Hook to various evil stepmothers to take stabs (literally) at changing the ends of their stories. Meanwhile, amid a general slaughter of dwarves and billy goats, Agatha and her rigid but educable true love, Tedros, flee for protection to the League of Thirteen. This turns out to be a company of geriatric versions of characters, from Hansel and Gretel (in wheelchairs) to fat and shrewish Cinderella, led by an enigmatic Merlin. As the tale moves slowly toward climactic battles and choices, Chainani further lightens the load by stuffing it with memes ranging from a magic ring that must be destroyed and a “maleficent” gown for Sophie to this oddly familiar line: “Of all the tales in all the kingdoms in all the Woods, you had to walk into mine.” Rafal’s plan turns out to be an attempt to prove that love can be twisted into an instrument of Evil. Though the proposition eventually founders on the twin rocks of true friendship and family ties, talk of “balance” in the aftermath at least promises to give Evil a fighting chance in future fairy tales. Bruno’s polished vignettes at each chapter’s head and elsewhere add sophisticated visual notes.
Ultimately more than a little full of itself, but well-stocked with big themes, inventively spun fairy-tale tropes, and flashes of hilarity. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: July 21, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-210495-3
Page Count: 672
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2015
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