Brightstorm (Brightstorm Series #1)

by Vashti Hardy, George Ermos (Illustrator)

Overview

Critically acclaimed in the UK, Brightstorm is a fast-paced fantasy adventure novel that will set imaginations soaring.

Arthur and Maudie Brightstorm receive devastating news: their famous explorer father has died in a failed attempt to reach South Polaris. To make matters worse, the Lontown Geographical Society finds Ernest Brightstorm guilty of sabotaging the expedition of his competitor, Eudora Vane. But a mysterious clue leads the twins to question the story they’ve been told—and to uncover the truth, they must undertake the journey of a lifetime.

Joining the ragtag crew of a homemade sky-ship captained by the intrepid Harriet Culpepper, Arthur and Maudie race to South Polaris to salvage their family’s reputation and find out what really happened on their father’s doomed expedition. Brightstorm is a propulsive and compelling fantasy adventure set among the vibrant landscapes and dynamic characters of Vashti Hardy’s vividly imagined world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781324005650
Publisher:	Norton Young Readers
Publication date:	03/17/2020
Series:	Brightstorm Series , #1
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
Lexile:	790L (what's this?)
File size:	19 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Vashti Hardy is a children’s book author who lives near Lancashire, England, with her husband and three teens. She has an honors teaching degree and an MA in creative writing from the University of Chichester.

Editorial Reviews

02/03/2020

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. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"A novel of grandeur and action."

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"Hardy has drunk from the same cup as Philip Reeve and Philip Pullman. This is a skillful, gripping and hugely enjoyable account of the bonds that keep families together despite the most awful adversities."

Literary Review

"“[A] pacy tale of lies and greed versus loyalty and derring-do"

Guardian

03/01/2020

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

School Library Journal

2019-12-08
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)

Kirkus Reviews