A fair, heroic fantasy for the school-age demographic.
A mysterious earthquake catapults the modern-day Riverton family into the fantasy realm of Trimoria, where their latent magical abilities put them in peril from the reigning dark sorcerer.
First-time author Rothman launches the first in a proposed series with the saga of the Riverton family, a seemingly average American household who—along with their faithful cat—are on one of dad’s “edu-taining” vacation trips. While exploring caves in Arizona, a strange earthquake thrusts them into another world. It’s the magic-ridden land of Trimoria, a medieval, feudal town full of dangerous swamps, mysterious forests and ancient rituals. It’s overseen by Azazel, a dangerous warlock who maintains deadly vigilance against any force that might oppose him. The Rivertons find refuge with Trimoria’s sherifflike “First Protector,” a giant of a good guy named Throll, and determine that their presence in this place has granted each of the Rivertons (even the cat) extraordinary powers. One teen son has super-strength, the other can wield energy blasts; dad appears to be an advanced wizard, while mom can heal almost any wound. It seems the family is part of a long-repeated prophecy of newcomers who will overturn Azazel’s despotic reign. Prophecies come rather thick and fast in the plot—lucky encounters and diaries tend to give away much of the game early and prosaically. We learn little of Azazel, the nemesis who had looked to be the most intriguing character; he did a deal with an enticing dark-elf queen centuries ago to gain immortality and power. He almost regrets it. The Rivertons prove to be angst-free, super-competent types who adapt to enchanted life easily, without missing Earth much. A virtuous, outcast ogre rounds out the team. Rothman’s language and description are precise and well-tuned to an adolescent readership, even if much of the mid-portion only lays the groundwork for the prophesized next chapters in the series.
A fair, heroic fantasy for the school-age demographic.Pub Date: June 1, 2012
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 443
Publisher: Kurti Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
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