A good bet for the thrill-seeking middle-school crowd. (Adventure. 12-15)
Following on the heels of Invisible City (2010), Harris returns with the second entry in the Joshua Files.
Fourteen-year-old British-Mexican Joshua Garcia, still determined to discover how his father died, is back to a somewhat normal existence in Oxford, England. The arrival of a series of cryptic postcards from Veracruz, Mexico, and alarming new suspicions surrounding his father’s murder soon have Josh seeking out further clues about his nemesis, Simon Madison. Josh, beginning to doubt the motives of even his closest friends, ends up back in the hidden city of Ek Naab. Ixchel, a minor character in Invisible City, becomes a major player, and she proves to be a valuable ally, especially when Josh unearths evidence of a secret death cult. Incredibly, between fulfilling his destiny as the last of a powerful Mayan bloodline and tracking down civilization-saving artifacts all over Mexico, Josh finds the time and the technology to update his secret blog. These blog entries chop up the narrative and distract from an already-complicated story. Nevertheless, with tighter writing and character development than the first, this book is one of the rare sequels that improve upon the original. Touches of science fiction and fantasy add flavor to the adventure and action, as do Borgesian allusions and a charming tale of two long-dead lovers.
A good bet for the thrill-seeking middle-school crowd. (Adventure. 12-15)Pub Date: July 5, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8027-2303-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli.
For two teenagers, a small town’s annual cautionary ritual becomes both a life- and a death-changing experience.
On the second Wednesday in June, every eighth grader in Amber Springs, Pennsylvania, gets a black shirt, the name and picture of a teen killed the previous year through reckless behavior—and the silent treatment from everyone in town. Like many of his classmates, shy, self-conscious Robbie “Worm” Tarnauer has been looking forward to Dead Wed as a day for cutting loose rather than sober reflection…until he finds himself talking to a strange girl or, as she would have it, “spectral maiden,” only he can see or touch. Becca Finch is as surprised and confused as Worm, only remembering losing control of her car on an icy slope that past Christmas Eve. But being (or having been, anyway) a more outgoing sort, she sees their encounter as a sign that she’s got a mission. What follows, in a long conversational ramble through town and beyond, is a day at once ordinary yet rich in discovery and self-discovery—not just for Worm, but for Becca too, with a climactic twist that leaves both ready, or readier, for whatever may come next. Spinelli shines at setting a tongue-in-cheek tone for a tale with serious underpinnings, and as in Stargirl (2000), readers will be swept into the relationship that develops between this adolescent odd couple. Characters follow a White default.
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli. (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-30667-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
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