After finding the body of a drowned man in the Río Bravo (Rio Grande), five sisters set out on a danger-filled adventure that will take them from their border town in Texas to Mexico.
When Odilia, the narrator and oldest sister, and her four siblings come across the body of a drowned man carrying identification in his pocket, they decide to take him back to his family in Mexico. Having ruled out wiser options, they also throw in a visit to their Mexican grandmother for good measure. Using Odysseus as the inspiration, McCall (Shame the Stars, 2016, etc.) patterns the girls’ journey after his, and their one-day intended trip becomes a 12-day escapade. Along the way they encounter mythical Mexican characters—La Llorona, Cecilia the witch, lechuzas, a nagual, a chupacabra, the goddess Tonantzín—who either hinder or help them along the way. The fantastical journey gets bogged down with myriad improbable decisions and excessive descriptions that distract from the plot. Originally published in English as The Summer of the Mariposas (2012), this translation is adequate but not stellar. There are many literal and word-for-word translations as well as Anglicisms that fluent Spanish readers will find distracting.
A Mexican-set Odyssey that falls flat. (Fantasy. 9-15)Pub Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-62014-786-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tu Books
Review Posted Online: April 3, 2018
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY
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In honor of its 25th anniversary, a Disney Halloween horror/comedy film gets a sequel to go with its original novelization.
Three Salem witches hanged in 1693 for stealing a child’s life force are revived in 1993 when 16-year-old new kid Max completes a spell by lighting a magical candle (which has to be kindled by a virgin to work). Max and dazzling, popular classmate Allison have to keep said witches at bay until dawn to save all of the local children from a similar fate. Fast-forward to 2018: Poppy, daughter of Max and Allison, inadvertently works a spell that sends her parents and an aunt to hell in exchange for the gleeful witches. With help from her best friend, Travis, and classmate Isabella, on whom she has a major crush, Poppy has only hours to keep the weird sisters from working more evil. The witches, each daffier than the last, supply most of the comedy as well as plenty of menace but end up back in the infernal regions. There’s also a talking cat, a talking dog, a gaggle of costumed heroines, and an oblique reference to a certain beloved Halloween movie. Traditional Disney wholesomeness is spiced, not soured, by occasional innuendo and a big twist in the sequel. Poppy and her family are white, while Travis and Isabella are both African-American.
A bit of envelope-pushing freshens up the formula. (Fantasy. 10-15)Pub Date: July 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-368-02003-9
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Freeform/Disney
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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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 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
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