Furthermore

Starred review from May 16, 2016
Alice Alexis Queensmeadow does her best not to make waves, but she can’t help it: she’s almost entirely devoid of color in a world defined by it, and her “Surrender” is coming up, along with her 12th birthday. Everyone in Ferenwood “was born with a bit of magical talent,” and the Surrender is the time to show them off, receiving an important task in return. When Oliver Newbanks, a boy who once teased her because of her appearance, approaches her for help completing his task, she reluctantly agrees, but only because he says he knows where her missing father is. Oliver and Alice set off for Furthermore, where nothing is as it seems. Mafi’s (the Shatter Me trilogy) first middle grade novel is a lush, enchanting fantasy full of magic and mayhem, including paper foxes, people who live in eggshells, and magical maps. While Oliver and Alice start off at odds, their friendship, forged in adversity, is the best part of a fast-paced, funny, and richly imaginative story that embraces and celebrates individuality. Ages 9–12. Agent: Jodi Reamer, Writers House.

Starred review from May 15, 2016
A 12-year-old girl who doesn't fit into her own world embarks on a harrowing quest with a boy she doesn't trust to find her missing father.With white hair and skin, quirky Alice Queensmeadow's an oddity in colorful, magical Ferenwood. Since her father's mysterious disappearance "unzipped her from top to bottom," Alice finds life full of "unspoken hurts." Alice hopes to prove herself in the annual Surrender, when 12-year-olds demonstrate their unique magical talents. Humiliated by her disappointing performance and with "nothing left to lose and an entire father to find," Alice accepts an invitation from brown-skinned Oliver, a boy she distrusts, to help him bring home her father. Together they descend to alien Furthermore, starting with Slumber, the first of many peculiar villages they will encounter, each with arbitrary rules they must follow. Learning Oliver has deceived her, Alice ditches him but quickly discovers they need each other to survive and find her father. Told in rich, luscious, clever prose by an omniscient narrator whose chatty asides warn and inform, Alice's remarkable adventure transports her across bizarre landscapes where she eventually realizes how wonderful it is to be herself and to have a friend she can trust.An original new Alice confronts her own wonderland in this smashing fantasy. (Fantasy. 9-12)

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June 1, 2016

Gr 5-7-Twelve-year-old Alice of Ferenwood is swept up in an adventure when she sets out to find her three-years-lost father after her demonstration of magical talent fails to impress her village. In her world, color is intimately connected with magical ability. Everyone around her has brightly colored skin and hair. Alice, however, was born without any color-she has ultra-pale skin and light hair. She gains a companion on her journey to locate her father, a boy named Oliver who has the deceitful gift of persuasion and who provides a gateway into the neighboring fantasy land of Furthermore. In the vein of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, this title, with its colorful world-building, is sure to delight, the prose so saturated with the fantastic that the described reality becomes difficult to differentiate from metaphor. The tongue-in-cheek section headings are delightful (e.g., "Turn the page for more chapters" and "This might be my favorite part") but sporadic and mostly for fun, since the chapters are unnumbered and unnamed. Filled with danger and arbitrary rules, the realm of Furthermore is so set against interlopers like Alice and Oliver that their eventual success relies on happenstance. The fast-paced narrative, with a focus on action and adventure, comes to an unexpected halt when the story is expeditiously resolved. The book attempts to depict characters with a rich variety of hair and skin tones, but the plot features a protagonist who reflects the typical whiteness that besets most fantasy. VERDICT An unusually imaginative, entertaining fantasy with mostly minor deficiencies that prevent it from becoming pure magic.-Erin Reilly-Sanders, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2016
Grades 4-7 The land of Ferenwood celebrates color, magic, and rationality. It is a small tragedy, therefore, that 12-year-old Alice Queensmeadow was born without colorfrom her cottony hair to her milky white toesor any apparent magical ability. Her long-awaited chance for adventure comes when Oliver Newbanks reveals that he's found Alice's missing father in the peculiar land of Furthermore, but needs her help with the rescue. Unlike Ferenwood, Furthermore is characterized by reckless magic, danger, and baffling rules that the two must navigate for their quest to succeed. So, too, Alice and Oliver must overcome past differences and learn to trust each other. Mafi (Shatter Me, 2011) constructs her world with kaleidoscopic imagination that recalls Lewis Carroll's Wonderland and Norton Juster's Lands Beyond. Readers will encounter rain-light-dappled skies, sugared air, and a live origami fox; but as delightful as these details are, the descriptive passages impinge on the plot, causing it to drag. Nevertheless, the engaging writing and spirited protagonist will whisk away readers with a penchant for whimsy and world building.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)