Storm-Wake

June 1, 2018

Gr 7 Up-Moss, Pa, and fishlike Cal, together with their two dogs and horse, are the only inhabitants of a magical island, where Pa-through the use of "Storm Flowers" and stories-can cause tempests to arise, unusual creatures to appear, and memories to fade. They live a carefree existence until Pa's suddenly brusque treatment of Cal causes Moss to question both his father's powers and his true nature. When two young men are shipwrecked on the island, Moss and Cal learn that there is another world beyond what they've known, and, wanting to be a part of it, they decide to leave their mystical home. Only when they have sailed away do they realize the hold the island will always have on them. With chapters divided into five acts, Christopher's dark reworking of The Tempest includes the basic elements of Shakespeare's play: magical characters, sorcery, romance, and a theme of good vs. evil, inviting comparisons with the Bard's original. While the writing is fluid and enhanced by the rhythm of repetitive words, (e.g., quick-fast, look-see), the middle of the story is impeded by myriad details which seem to slow the pace and add a degree of self-consciousness to the text. VERDICT Like Christopher's Stolen, this is a complicated novel geared towards sophisticated YA readers.-Nancy Menaldi-Scanlan, formerly at LaSalle Academy, Providence

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2018
A shipwreck brings a brave new world in this Tempest retelling.Moss and Pa are the last two humans, stranded on an island until Pa's Experiment with magical stormflowers can restore the drowned world. Fishboy Cal arrived a few years ago, first a playmate and now a budding romantic partner for Moss, but he rejects Pa's post-apocalyptic narrative and yearns to escape. Moss is ethnically ambiguous--she is tan-skinned and green-eyed, with dark curly hair--in contrast to Pa, who is white, but their reactions to dark-skinned Cal frustratingly replicate the latent imperialism of Shakespeare's play: Moss (Miranda) and Pa (Prospero) name him Callan (Caliban) and teach him English but still consider him "Other." Now 14 years old, Moss worries about her pollen-addicted, depressed Pa, her aging dog, and the pangs of puberty. When a storm brings blond-haired Finn--received as a "real" boy--Moss questions Pa's creation myths and grapples with her resurfacing memories. Christopher (The Killing Woods, 2014, etc.) streamlines the Shakespearean tale, eliminating secondary characters and subplots and rendering the magic on the island ambiguous. Replacing Elizabethan English with an inventive modern (but peculiarly overhyphenated) form keeps the language poetic, florid, and descriptive, if still alien.As wild and refreshing as an ocean storm, if similarly tumultuous. (Fantasy. 12-18)

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Starred review from May 15, 2018
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* On an isolated island ravaged by fierce storms, Moss grows up. At first, it's just Moss and her pa; the Old World, he tells her, was destroyed by terrible floods and people who didn't care for the earth. On the island, Pa picks wild, healing stormflowers and tells Moss stories of magical sea creatures. Here, though, magic is more than a story: one day, a horse appears from the ocean, and then a boy Moss' age, named Callan, whom Pa says is part fish. At first, this is as big as Moss needs her world to be. But as the years pass and her feelings for Callan grow more complicated, her awareness of Pa, his changeable moods, and the stories he tells her begin to change, and she starts to wonder about the world beyond. When another storm causes a boy from that world to shipwreck on the island, Moss may be about to find answers. Christopher, whose debut (Stolen, 2010) was a Printz Honor Book, uses elements from Shakespeare's The Tempest to tell the story of another girl adrift. Through economy of language, she finds Moss' voice; through clear, luminous prose, she anchors the story to the island, which seems half alive itself. A tale of strange magic and faith lost and found that packs no less a wallop for its slim size.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)