Take a photo of a barcode or cover
squeakadillo 's review for:
The Emerald Atlas
by John Stephens
When I was a "real" children's librarian, I tried to maintain a familiarity with the books that were popular with kids, which occasionally meant reading books that didn't live up to my lofty literary standards. Since I don't work directly with the public anymore, I rarely take the time to read mediocre books on purpose. Sometimes I feel like this gives me a skewed set of standards for the books I do read. It's easy to nitpick A Monster Calls when you're comparing it to Breadcrumbs, instead of the latest Monster High (see? I've totally heard of that series).
For that reason, it's refreshing to read a book like The Emerald Atlas. The author wrote for Gossip Girl and The OC, and it shows. Two of the protagonists are cardboard cutouts, straight out of the latest High School Musical franchise - the nerdy boy, the small but scrappy girl - and their dialogue is wince-inducing. The eldest child is slightly better developed, but she still only has one guiding motivation. The villains are laughable, prancing around caves and dilapidated castles in mustache-twirling glee.
As for the settings... As the book opens, the children are spending time in the Edgar Allan Poe Home for Hopeless and Incorrigible Orphans. If you're going to throw a whopper of a place name like that into your novel, it better have a (hopefully ironic, self-mocking) tone to match. This one doesn't.
Now that I've gotten all of that out of the way, though, let me hasten to say that I would totally recommend this book to kids if I were still doing active readers' advisory. The plot is reasonably well-crafted (though I suspect there are probably holes, since it is a time travel tale), the pacing is pretty good, and it's full of monsters and action. The message of family loyalty and forgiveness (not that I support didacticism, mind you) is a positive one too.
So, yes. I would send this book home with lots of kids, and they would probably love it. But Breadcrumbs is better.
For that reason, it's refreshing to read a book like The Emerald Atlas. The author wrote for Gossip Girl and The OC, and it shows. Two of the protagonists are cardboard cutouts, straight out of the latest High School Musical franchise - the nerdy boy, the small but scrappy girl - and their dialogue is wince-inducing. The eldest child is slightly better developed, but she still only has one guiding motivation. The villains are laughable, prancing around caves and dilapidated castles in mustache-twirling glee.
As for the settings... As the book opens, the children are spending time in the Edgar Allan Poe Home for Hopeless and Incorrigible Orphans. If you're going to throw a whopper of a place name like that into your novel, it better have a (hopefully ironic, self-mocking) tone to match. This one doesn't.
Now that I've gotten all of that out of the way, though, let me hasten to say that I would totally recommend this book to kids if I were still doing active readers' advisory. The plot is reasonably well-crafted (though I suspect there are probably holes, since it is a time travel tale), the pacing is pretty good, and it's full of monsters and action. The message of family loyalty and forgiveness (not that I support didacticism, mind you) is a positive one too.
So, yes. I would send this book home with lots of kids, and they would probably love it. But Breadcrumbs is better.