Solid, though familiar, fantasy fare for readers not quite ready for Tolkien.
When adventure calls, a youngster leaves his parents’ llama farm and sets out on a quest.
While shoveling llama poop one day, brown-skinned 8-year-old Dak Evans notices a pale-skinned, bespectacled, purple-haired girl nearby. Lucy, a llama owned by the monks at the temple next door, awakens him that night and leads him to meet the girl, an aspiring wizard named Fenn, but it’s Lucy—apparently a magical creature with great powers—who announces that Dak will need to help save everyone from danger. She tells him of a lengthy war fought over magic stones that were later hidden in the monks’ temple. The Kingdom of Ravenwood has been peaceful ever since. But the stones have been stolen, and so the journey to find them, and the thief, begins. Dak’s grit and yen for adventure have caught Lucy’s eye, and she chooses him and Fenn to be her companions. But it won’t be easy: Their search for the first stone takes them to a den full of fire-breathing dragons. The narrative incorporates common fantasy tropes—teleportation, magic shields—but the overall threat feels too vague to be truly menacing. While the book contains little internal conflict and the worldbuilding isn’t especially original, it has enough action to entice newcomers to the genre. Human characters are drawn as standard cartoon types in the grayscale art, but the dragons are impressive, and Lucy is adorable.
Solid, though familiar, fantasy fare for readers not quite ready for Tolkien. (map, excerpt from Fenn’s creature journal, questions and activities) (Fantasy. 6-9)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780593808542
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for...
A gentle voice and familiar pitfalls characterize this tale of a boy navigating the risky road to responsibility.
Gavin is new to his neighborhood and Carver Elementary. He likes his new friend, Richard, and has a typically contentious relationship with his older sister, Danielle. When Gavin’s desire to impress Richard sets off a disastrous chain of events, the boy struggles to evade responsibility for his actions. “After all, it isn’t his fault that Danielle’s snow globe got broken. Sure, he shouldn’t have been in her room—but then, she shouldn’t be keeping candy in her room to tempt him. Anybody would be tempted. Anybody!” opines Gavin once he learns the punishment for his crime. While Gavin has a charming Everyboy quality, and his aversion to Aunt Myrtle’s yapping little dog rings true, little about Gavin distinguishes him from other trouble-prone protagonists. He is, regrettably, forgettable. Coretta Scott King Honor winner English (Francie, 1999) is a teacher whose storytelling usually benefits from her day job. Unfortunately, the pizzazz of classroom chaos is largely absent from this series opener.
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for subsequent volumes. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-97044-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
Having put together a band with renowned cousin Duck Ellington and singer “Bee” Holiday, Rooster’s chances sure look...
Winning actually isn’t everything, as jazz-happy Rooster learns when he goes up against the legendary likes of Mules Davis and Ella Finchgerald at the barnyard talent show.
Having put together a band with renowned cousin Duck Ellington and singer “Bee” Holiday, Rooster’s chances sure look good—particularly after his “ ‘Hen from Ipanema’ [makes] / the barnyard chickies swoon.”—but in the end the competition is just too stiff. No matter: A compliment from cool Mules and the conviction that he still has the world’s best band soon puts the strut back in his stride. Alexander’s versifying isn’t always in tune (“So, he went to see his cousin, / a pianist of great fame…”), and despite his moniker Rooster plays an electric bass in Bower’s canted country scenes. Children are unlikely to get most of the jokes liberally sprinkled through the text, of course, so the adults sharing it with them should be ready to consult the backmatter, which consists of closing notes on jazz’s instruments, history and best-known musicians.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-58536-688-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
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