Between Monsters and Marvels

July 17, 2023
Wishingrad (The Verdigris Pawn) tackles themes of exploitation, perception, reality, and trust in this high-stakes tale. Everyone on the island of Barrow’s Bay is convinced that the monsters that once plagued the community were killed off years ago. But when 11-year-old Dare Coates’s father, the Captain of the Guard, is killed, Dare believes it was by monsters, not humans. Not long after, her new stepfather, the island’s manipulative governor, sends her to the mainland City-on-the-Pike to stay with her retired actor aunt. The city proves full of mysteries, and Dare soon discovers that the monsters are still very alive. She finds herself caught between two warring factions: those who wish to kill the monsters and those who want to save them. As she works to puzzle out the truth about her father’s death, she uncovers information that makes her question everything she knows not only about the creatures, but about her father as well. Bouncy prose builds toward an engaging and optimistic exploration of how power and privilege can be wielded for both good and bad, as observed by one take-charge heroine who seeks to define her place in the world. Main characters read as white. Ages 8–12. Agent: Victoria Marini, Irene Goodman Literary.

August 1, 2023
After her father dies, a girl must harness both her temper and innate abilities to find his killer and prove it's a monster. Dare Coates is willful, surly, and unrepentantly nonconforming: "an awful girl." Only her father truly understood and loved her, but he was often busy patrolling for monsters on the island where they live, even though one hasn't been seen there for over 20 years. After his violent murder, her mother marries the island's pompous and secretive governor, who then sends Dare to the mainland to live with her father's aunt. From the moment her journey begins, Dare finds connections to her father through his past associates and the guild emblem on his special wooden box. The more she learns about him, the more peril Dare finds herself in, especially as she realizes the connection both she and her father have with so-called monsters. Dare has an outwardly cantankerous nature that hides a desire for acceptance. This works to endear her to readers even as her thorny exterior provides entertainment. Dare's true nature reveals itself piece by piece, like the clues dropped in every so often that help expand the worldbuilding as well as the moral conundrums Dare becomes embroiled in. Questions of what constitutes a monster and who decides what's true add depth to an already feisty caper. Characters read white. A quirky examination of true monstrousness with a memorable protagonist. (Fantasy. 9-12)

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 1, 2023
Grades 5-8 Dare Coates is feisty, unkempt, and opinionated, and she doesn't care who knows it. These qualities don't earn her many--make that any--friends on her island home, so she's beyond heartbroken when her father, the only person who understands her, dies in a suspicious accident. She's barely begun to grieve when her mother marries the governor, who literally ships Dare from Barrow's Bay to her estranged great-aunt Emily's home in City-on-the-Pike. Wishingrad (The Verdigris Pawn, 2021) dreams up a rich fantasy setting akin to a magical Victorian London, but don't confuse magic with whimsy. City-on-the-Pike is overpopulated, starkly divided by class, and rife with crime, the filth of industrialization, and--whether people want to admit it or not--monsters. While Dare gets her bearings, she endeavors to figure out the truth about her father's death and, in so doing, exposes a dark ring of corruption that goes all the way to society's top. Colorful characters and genuine friendships make the mystery's darker themes easier to swallow as Dare confronts what actually makes something a monster. Hand to fans of Thomas Taylor's Eerie-on-Sea series.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from October 6, 2023

Gr 5 Up-Dare Coates is a contrary, Mary Lennox-like child living on Barrow's Bay island in an alternative 19th-century society where her father serves in the antiquated role of Captain of the Guard. After all, there are no beastly monsters left to battle. When her sainted father is murdered in a highly telegraphed event, Dare's world crumbles. Her society-minded mother quickly remarries the island's governor, and Dare is shipped off to the mainland City-on-the-Pike to live with her retired, theatrical Aunt Emily. In the industrial port city, she meets various individuals, sailors, and theatre owners who knew her father. During her adventures, Dare discovers monsters still exist, and their activities may relate to her father's death. Dare's new friends, Gil and Nell, help Dare uncover a corrupt cabal tied to animal cruelty. Dare, described as having ashy brown hair and an angular nose, is admirably unpleasant in a way every child will appreciate. Her scrappy me-against-the-world attitude will have readers gleefully following her perilous scrapes, despite her stubbornness and emotional outbursts. The third-person limited perspective helps maintain the story's secrets, although anyone who has seen The Sixth Sense will quickly have suspicions about Gil. Parts of the book are like an extended bestiary, others a coping manual for grief. The detailed quasi-Dickensian setting and memorable characters give Wishingrad's complex world the guardrails it needs to succeed. VERDICT Hand sell this to its delighted readers-children who like Fantastic Beasts and animal rescue stories.-Caitlin Augusta

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