First Hero (The Chronicles of Avantia #1)

Blade, Adam       First Hero (The Chronicles of Avantia #1) Scholastic/Grolier/Childrens Press/Watts  2012  155p  $15.99               978-0-545-36160-6     G     elm/ms      Fantasy    

Since the age of seven, when Tanner’s father was murdered in front of him by the warlord Derthsin, Tanner has been training and waiting to avenge his father’s death.  Eight years later, an evil army menaces Avantia, and Tanner teams up with Gwen and Geffen, twins who hold the key to discovering the missing pieces of the Mask of Death, which controls all telepathic warrior Beasts in the land. 

First Hero is a straightforward action-adventure fantasy.  Humans bond with telepathic Beasts to become formidable fighting units.  Evil warlords oppress the populace and Tanner is in training to become Avantia’s hero.  There is a quest for a magical object and hazards and gore along the way.  The novel reads like a swashbuckling movie or comic-book script.  The plot is predictable and holds no surprises.

The characters are undeveloped.  The pace is rapid without much back story.  The setting is out of a B-grade movie.  But the story will appeal to readers raised on electronic fantasy games, and with its dramatic cover art, short chapters, many combat scenes and non-stop action, First Hero is bound to find a middle-school readership.

           

G     Hilary Welliver   Fantasy, Human-animal relationships, Brothers and sisters, Twins

 

McMann, Lisa. The Unwanteds.

McMann, Lisa.  The Unwanteds. Simon & Schuster/Little Brown, 2011.  400p.

$16.99  ISBN 978-1-4424-0770-1      ms    VG-BN Fantasy    

     Twins are split apart: Aaron, to move forward to become a leader of Quill, and Alex, to go to his death as an Unwanted because he is deemed to have creative tendencies.  Instead, Alex goes to a magical land where he not only survives but is also trained to use his creativity to battle the enemy.  The concept of purging a land of its children resonates with contemporary young readers who enjoy watching children face seemingly insurmountable odds.  Although McMann, too, begins her book with this disturbing event, she has given it her own voice.  In the land of Quill, children who are deemed to be useless to the cause are named “Unwanteds,” and they are sentenced to death in boiling oil.   Justine, the high priestess of Quill, has only disdain for them, saving her appreciation for the Necessaries and the Wanteds.  When a witness sees twin Alex Stowe drawing in the dirt, Alex is added to the list of Unwanteds because creativity is not valued in Quill.  Commitment to the cause and unwavering adherence to Quill’s rules are valued by Alex’s brother Aaron, and he moves forward as a Wanted due to his brilliance at improving living conditions in his land.  Imagine Alex’s shock when, instead of meeting death, he is whisked into Artime, a fantasy world that coexists with Quill but is not known to Quill’s citizenry.  While in Artime, Alex is trained in the arts and in magic, which, when combined, can be used to defend Artime against Quill in a battle that is imminent as the two worlds come together.  Unique magical characters and spells, Alex’s friends and enemies alike and the enigmatic Mr. Today, leader of Artime, combine to make this book a noteworthy one.  When Alex figures out how to communicate with his brother Aaron, he is shocked that Aaron does not want anything to do with him!  In a climax of all climaxes, there is a battle, there is identity-changing, and there is no resolution to the tension between the twins, leaving an opening for a sequel to The Unwanteds.  Children who want a certain “je ne sais quoi” in the fantasy genre will enjoy this book! 
Martha Squaresky

 

Identical Strangers.

Schein, Elyse and Paula Bernstein. Identical Strangers.
Random House /Knopf/Anchor/Three Rivers, 2007. $25.95 270p 978-1-4000-6496-0

This is the chronicle of two women and their mutual discovery that they were twins who were separated when they were adopted by two different families. This double autobiography also examines the nature vs. nurture theory and is sprinkled with scientific information about twins.
This is the chronicle of two women and their mutual discovery that they were twins who were separated when they were adopted by two different families. They bond when they are in their late thirties and team up to find out their biological family history. They learn that the adoption agency that handled the adoptions was involved in an unethical study about twins and that is the reason they were separated. Both Elyse and Paula take turns telling their own story and reflect on how discovering they had a twin has impacted their lives. This double autobiography also examines the nature vs. nurture theory and is sprinkled with scientific information about twins. Color photographs of the two women and their families as they grow up and as adults are included in the middle of the book. The reader will by swept up in the mystery of their search for their mother and the secrets that are kept in the locked their adoption records. This title will be a very good selection for high school libraries where there is interest in the topic of adoption and/or the study of twins. TW