Brightstorm (Brightstorm)

January 1, 2020
Orphaned twins, an adventurer dad lost to an ice monster, and an airship race around the world. In Lontown, 12-year-old twins Arthur and Maudie learn that their explorer father has gone missing on his quest to reach South Polaris, the crew of his sky-ship apparently eaten by monsters. As he's accused of sabotage, their father's property is forfeit. The disgraced twins are sent off to live in a garret in a scene straight out of an Edwardian novel à la A Little Princess. Maudie has the consolation of her engineering skills, but all Arthur wants is to be an adventurer like his father. A chance to join Harriet Culpepper's journey to South Polaris might offer excitement and let him clear his father's name--if only he can avoid getting eaten by intelligent ice monsters. Though some steampunk set dressing is appropriately over-the-top (such as a flying house, thinly depicted but charming), adaptive tools for Arthur's disability are wonderfully realistic. His iron arm is a standard, sometimes painful passive prosthesis. The crew adapts the airship galley for Arthur's needs, even creating a spiked chopping board. Off the ship, Arthur and Maudie meet people and animals in vignettes that are appealingly rendered but slight. Harriet teaches the white twins respect for the cultures they encounter on these travels, though they are never more than observers of non-Lontowners' different ways. A kid adventurer with a disability makes this steampunk offering stand out. (Steampunk. 9-11)

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

February 3, 2020
This enjoyable steampunk adventure by debut author Hardy sees twins Arthur and Maudie Brightstorm join a sky ship race to discover South Polaris. Scholarly, headstrong Arty, born with one arm, wears an iron prosthesis crafted and maintained by mechanically inclined Maud. After their father is declared dead—eaten by polar beasts—and judged guilty of violating the frequently classist Geographical Society’s Explorer’s Code in a previous race, the 12-year-olds are summarily kicked out of their Lontown family home. They’re sold to a cruel couple, who send Maud to work in the shipyard and force Arty to clean and cook. When their father’s sapient hawk, Parthena, returns from the ice continent with evidence of his survival, the children jump at the chance to crew with young explorer Harriet Culpepper in a voyage to reach South Polaris; they hope to cleanse the besmirched family name and find their father alive. Arty’s determination and Maudie’s engineering skills both prove vital in the journey across the varied terrain of Hardy’s marvelously imagined world and its surprising allies, from desert kings to thought wolves. Ages 9–12.

March 1, 2020

Gr 3-6-A Victorian steampunk quest with an unusual company of travelers. Twelve-year-old twins Maud and Arthur Brightstorm lost their father in a terrible accident as he searched for the South Pole of their alternate-Earth world. A heartless insurance company flack has taken their home and all their possessions, and they're living with a couple of ne'er-do-wells who force them to cook, clean, and work to support their household. Eager to find their father, they enlist with explorer Harriet Culpepper as she pilots her balloon sky-ship Aurora to the Ice Continent. Deceitful enemies, narrow escapes, and giant wolves propel the plot along as the young voyagers gain independence and make lifelong friends. Maud is an engineering prodigy who has already designed a prosthetic for her twin. Arthur is a writer and thinker whose missing right arm informs but never defines his character. Strong, athletic Harriet and towering ship's cook Felicity Wiggety are powerful adventurers in a narrative with overtones of both Charles Dickens and Philip Pullman. Character descriptions and occasional illustrations portray the travelers as light-skinned people from an alternate-England country. The company reprovisions along the way in a land with two kings whose affectionate relationship sets the tone for their welcoming, environmentally friendly city. The Brightstorm twins learn of the misdeeds of a rival explorer family which parallel those of actual Victorian explorers: thoughtless depredations of the plants and animals they find and terrible abuse of Indigenous people. A satisfying conclusion to the quest leaves room for more exploits from the intrepid crew of the Aurora. VERDICT A ripsnorting yarn with broad appeal for tweens.-Beth Wright Redford, Park Elementary School Library, Cross Plains, WI

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2020
Grades 4-7 Maudie and Arthur dream of joining their beloved father, famed explorer Ernest Brightstorm, on his magnificent sky-ship. However, after Ernest fails to return from his latest far-flung expedition, his assets are seized, and the twins are left indentured to a pair of truly loathsome guardians. When evidence comes to light that their father may have survived, Maudie and Arthur plot a daring escape and join the warm and eccentric crew of another sky-ship headed to the same distant lands as their father's ill-fated expedition. Hardy's enthralling story effortlessly builds a stunning steampunk world around the compelling twin siblings. Maudie is a pragmatic and brilliant engineer, while Arthur, who has a prosthetic arm, is more imaginative and bookish. Although the twins are fleshed out, the terrific action and constant travel comes at the expense of depth, and readers will be hungry for more details about the kooky characters and this astonishing world as they set sail with the brilliant Brightstorm kids.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)