The Siren's Cry

May 1, 2011

Twelve-year-old Fern is an Otherworldly, a vampire—though why a non–blood-drinking, non-immortal, naturally born, teleporting telekinetic is called a "vampire" is left as an exercise to the reader.

After fighting the evil Blouts in The Otherworldlies (2008), Fern must now face a deadlier menace: rooming with the school's mean girls on a class trip to Washington, D.C. Fern's only distraction from the bullies tormenting her is her vision of a boy in a cage. The boy, she discovers, is Miles Zapo, a kidnapped Otherworldly just Fern's age. Fern suspects Miles, like her, is one of the Unusuals, destined to do something or other. (It's not clear what's so Unusual, and it doesn't really matter; as long as there's a prophecy it's important, right?) The kidnapper is the dastardly Silver Tooth, also known as Haryle ("Hair-uh-Lee") Laffar, brother of evil Vlad from Fern's previous adventure, and possessed of even more mysterious and evil secrets. The Smithsonian, the Hope diamond, moon rocks and mohawked, scaled, monstrous birds all play a part in Haryle's villainous plans for Miles and Fern. A firmly middle-school adventure (despite packaging attempting to capitalize on the paranormal craze among older teens) composed of cartoon villains, unconvincing heroes and a muddled, nonsensical plot.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

December 1, 2011

Gr 7-10-In this sequel to The Otherworldlies (HarperCollins, 2008), Fern, now 13, has a vision of a boy locked in a cage marked "National Zoological Park." She wants to help him, but does not know where to begin (in part because she cannot figure out that "zoo" is short for "zoological"). When her class goes on a field trip to Washington, D.C., she locates him and unravels the plan of his captor, who turns out to be Fern's long-lost father, Haryle. Heavy reliance on coincidence robs the story of force. Haryle plans to collect specific objects (the Hope Diamond, a Mayan arrow, and moon rocks) to use in an immortality potion. Fern recognizes an old drawing of a rock as being the Hope Diamond because she happened to see it earlier in the day at the Smithsonian. Candace, one of her classmates, recognizes a drawing of an arrow because she saw it in a museum in California last summer. She read later in the newspaper that it was stolen, as it turns out, by Haryle. Plus, she knows all about moon rocks because she went to Space Camp, also last summer. The characters are stereotypes. Fern is the socially awkward but supernaturally powerful protagonist (and why make her a vampire if there is no talk of fangs, bloodlust, or preternatural good looks?); Candace is the fact-spouting geek. Principal Mooney is the tyrannical wet blanket. Blythe and Lee, the cool girls, are vain and mean. Flat exposition and characterizations typify this story.-Jennifer Prince, Buncombe County Public Library, NC

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.