Captivating and cathartic.
Unbeknownst to Charles, his dragon’s wish will alter his intersecting worlds of fantasy and reality.
Charles’ life is shaped by stories. Daydreaming serves as the Black 11-year-old’s escape to the “inside” place he calls his Sanctuary as he navigates dyslexia and tries to cope with being bullied at school. Many adults in his life overlook his extraordinary artistic abilities and perceive him as misbehaving or lazy. Fortunately, Charles has an ally in Mr. Glory Miles, the super at the Beatrix, the apartment building where he and his mom live. Other people, those who don’t know about dragons, see Mr. Miles as “an angry old man”—but Charles knows that he’s his dragon. Glory reveals the history of the dream folk, who “were survivors of the Great Dream before Time” back in Africa when “some people could fly.” When abusive father Mr. Calixte and his son, Junior—trolls disguised as people from Haiti—move into the Beatrix, they spark unease and tensions. Some people get sick, and others go missing. Charles feels compelled to help Junior, despite Mr. Miles’ warnings to stay away from the trolls, and he embarks on a quest with his two imaginary best friends, Ruby and Fig. Pivoting between escapism and reality, this creative debut features strong character development in its exploration of the ways Charles copes with multiple challenges that will resonate with many readers.
Captivating and cathartic. (author’s note) (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9780593572450
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Labyrinth Road
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
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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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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