Meeting

June 15, 2011
An everyday seventh grader has a secret alien best friend and a house full of magic-wielding mentors next-door.

Maya never expected to recover from the death of her best friend Stephanie, but accidentally bonding with Rimi completely changed her life (Thresholds, 2010). Rimi is sissimi, a young alien who communicates telepathically with Maya and hides as Maya's shadow—if a shadow could eat, move objects and draw. Not only is Rimi a wonderful new best friend, she's introduced Maya to her neighbors in Janus House, where Maya is now learning to be a magical practitioner so that she can one day to travel to alien worlds. Maya's adventures are sheer, joyful middle-school–meets-magic. She's concerned about making friends at school, her art and piano lessons, meeting aliens after classes, the embarrassment when Rimi telekinetically makes her burp, having the best Halloween costume and a mean classmate who also has a bonded sissimi. Though Maya is often confused by the plethora of alien concepts she's expected to understand (Rimi constantly uses undefined words), she finds her new responsibilities and friendships thrilling. The discombobulated mystery of who the bad guys are (presumably to be discovered later in the series) is almost incidental to the daily adventures of an ordinary girl with a shadow from another planet.

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

November 1, 2011

Gr 4-8-Having been accepted into the world of Janus House and its magical inhabitants, Maya Andersen continues to explore their world and her relationship with Rimi, the alien sissimi she bonded with in Thresholds (Viking, 2010). Though Rimi exposes Maya to a wealth of new senses and abilities, the seventh grader still struggles with her limitations and finding her place in the new world that has opened up to her. Questions from prying siblings and meeting strangers with their own secrets (including the proprietor of a comic shop not everyone can see) compound Maya's inner turmoil, and the number of secrets on her conscience tends to leave her bewildered (a feeling readers unfamiliar with the first book may share). Hoffman's knack for invention is evident in the worlds and inhabitants accessible through Janus House's portals, and a gentle magic pervades her writing and the tender friendship between Maya and Rimi.-Christi Esterle, Parker Library, CO

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.