Legacies

September 27, 2010
In the first book in the Shadow Grail series, an orphan, suddenly beset by mysterious circumstances, is sent to a posh boarding school accessible only by train, and discovers that she is a magician. Sound familiar? Lackey and Edghill know it, and pepper their tale with self-conscious references to Harry Potter. Spirit White is sent to Oakhurst Academy in Montana, where she learns she is a "Legacy"—the child of an alumnus, gifted with magical powers. Spirit's gift is not immediately apparent, but her friends, who have similarly portentous monikers such as Lachlan Spears and Burke Hallows, perform amazing stunts from the get-go. Their Dumbledore is a rather nasty character named Doctor Ambrosius, who assures them that they must prepare for war with nameless forces, but offers nothing so useful as an explanation or even an invisibility cloak. The inclusion of contemporary references—the school's Wi-Fi setup, Spirit lamenting the loss of her parents at Thanksgiving (even though they served tofurky)—seem intended to put a novel spin on trod territory, but there is little that is freshly imagined. Ages 13–up.

August 1, 2010

Gr 7-10-Spirit White, the sole survivor of a car accident that kills her family, finds that her parents had provided for this eventuality by making her a "legacy" of Oakhurst Boarding School for Magicians, just outside Billings, MT. There she joins others in her situation, all of whom have learned the nature of their magical (or "mage") gifts except Spirit, whose talent has not yet manifested itself. She and her friends discover the school's terrible record of "losing multiple students every year" and plot to overcome the evil force. Along the way, they IM and have pep rallies and school dances. (Another techie touch for librarians: RFID-chipped books.) This novel has a too-familiar setting and a cliched plot. However, it's a really good read. The authors do a great job of juxtaposing a scary theme and the ordinary angst of adolescents. They also do a nice job with the metaphor of magical gifts as means of self-actualization. Legacies has enough action for reluctant readers, and enough character development for teens to see themselves in this group of friends. The book's fans are sure to eagerly await Spirit's discovery of her mage gift and further confrontations with the forces of evil.-Corinne Henning-Sachs, Walker Memorial Library, Westbrook, ME

Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2010
Grades 7-11 After 16-year-old Spirit Whites entire family dies in a car crash, she emerges from weeks of rehabilitation to discover she is being sent to Oakhurst, an exclusive boarding school in Montana for orphans with magical powers. The problem is, Spirit doesnt seem to have any magical powerseven though one or both of her parents did (all students are Legacies). Though the school attempts to isolate students and encourages competition rather than friendship, Spirit becomes close with five engaging and very different teens. The group decides to investigate the mysterious and surprisingly common disappearances of fellow students. Lackey and Edghill know how to spin a yarn, immediately pulling the reader into Spirits mourning psyche as well as the fast-paced action of the mystery, mixing marvelous elements of fairy tales and mythology into both the plot and references in the students Magical History class. Theres also a touch of gentle romance, and readers who appreciate everything from X-Men to Harry Potter will be begging for the sequel, signaled by the abrupt ending.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2011
After her family's death, Spirit White is sent to remote Oakhurst Academy (a.k.a. "Hogwarts West"), where all the students are magicians. Something sinister is making students disappear, and Spirit and her friends must stop it. Too many pages are devoted to descriptions of the school and its resources in this series starter, but the action gets going in a tense ending.

(Copyright 2011 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)