Curses! Foiled Again

Yolen's smart, introspective, foil-wielding Aliera Carstairs returns, this time to thwart the Dark Lord's plot to kidnap her beloved cousin. The Dark Lord wants the Defender's weapon--that's Aliera's sword, the one with the hokey-looking jewel at the base that Aliera's mother picked up at a tag sale. It's this marriage of the mundane and the magical that gives this sequel to Foiled its most winning moments; Aliera has to squeeze her feats of derring-do in between high school math tests and fencing practice. Cavallaro uses a pallid gray-green palette for the New York City landscape in which Aliera lives her everyday life and rainbow colors for the magical beings that trail her. The story line has heart and intelligence, and Yolen successfully weds faerie lore to cinema-style plot twists; the only weak spot is the occasionally clunky dialogue: "You've watched too many cheap movies, Aliera," her nemesis tells her. "You sound like every cheap villain in them," is Aliera's banal retort. Yet Aliera is such an engaging hero that fans will gladly overlook the deficit. Ages 11-up. Agent: Elizabeth Harding, Curtis Brown. Illustrator's agent: Joe Monti, Barry Goldblatt Literary. (Jan.)■

Gr 7 Up--Yolen continues Aliera's journey in this follow-up to Foiled (First Second, 2010), which fleshes out more of the faerie world the young fencer has now become a part of. A quick sequential recap of the first story appears at the beginning to make this book accessible to new readers. Aliera has recently come to terms with her new role as Defender of the Faerie. She has discovered that her classmate Avery is actually a magically glamoured troll. He keeps following her around and cryptically promising to tell her more about her destiny. It's a shame that knowing his real identity doesn't make her think he's any less cute. Despite a chance encounter with Baba Yaga while riding the bus, Aliera attempts her normal routine: school, fencing practice, and visiting her cousin Caroline. A band of surly trolls is intent on getting her mystical practice foil, however, and plot to kidnap her and Avery at Grand Central Terminal. Barely escaping unscathed, Aliera learns that Caroline has been kidnapped. Color is used sparsely throughout Cavallaro's fantastic art, helping to highlight the surreal surroundings Aliera keeps getting thrown into. For example, she is in gray tones until she uses her foil to become invisible, which changes her hue to a darker shade of yellow. In dialogue-heavy panels, it can be difficult to tell which character is speaking. Still, the story itself provides a strong female protagonist who will leave readers clamoring for more.--Ryan P. Donovan, New York Public Library