09/28/2015
All their lives, 12-year-old identical twins Sonja and Charlotte have called the circus their home. Raised by Tatty Tatters, the circus’s tattooed woman, and helpful Uncle Tell, a fortune teller, the girls wow the crowds outside Rain City with their musical abilities. When Sonja and Charlotte’s family is threatened, their musical talents stolen, and their home destroyed, the two learn that they are the Daughters of the Key, prophesied to save the secret Seven Edens, a hidden and magical paradise, from Kats von Stralen and his mother, both eager to rule the Edens with a band of monstrous creatures. Together the girls journey across the Edens with Alexandria, an irritable Pearl Catcher, and a group of Changelings, all preparing for the battle ahead. Fans of Mieville’s Un Lun Dun will enjoy debut author Malouf’s intricate worlds, each teeming with its own customs and creatures, as well as her equally intricate pencil illustrations, which highlight the characters’ eccentricities. While characters and plot points tend to jumble, the overall themes of sisterhood and believing in oneself will entrance readers. Ages 10–up. (Nov.)
Praise for The Trilogy of Two:
A TIME Magazine Top 10 Children’s Book of 2015
“Fans of Mieville’s Un Lun Dun will enjoy debut author Malouf’s intricate worlds, each teeming with its own customs and creatures, as well as her equally intricate pencil illustrations, which highlight the characters’ eccentricities … themes of sisterhood and believing in oneself will entrance readers.”—Publishers Weekly
“An imaginative fantasy adventure with a unique arts focus.”—Booklist
“Quirky… with hints of L. Frank Baum’s Oz and C.S. Lewis’s Narnia.”—School Library Journal
“Meticulously drawn and imaginative.”—Vogue.com
“Whimsical… Malouf shows enough talent to stand on her own where whimsy and intrigue are concerned.”—TIME Magazine
“YA fiction’s new spellbinder… The book’s eccentric characters and the worlds-within-worlds they inhabit are richly illustrated… [Malouf’s] prose is lyrical and evocative.”—The Daily Beast
“So what if Juman Malouf's new book, The Trilogy of Two, is meant for children? The sweeping tale of twin girls traveling the country with their adoptive mother is a full 416 pages—gorgeous illustrations and all.”—PopSugar
“A new YA novel that shuffles the teen-dystopia deck with some Narnia-style fantasy… Designer and illustrator Juman Malouf sets quite a few plates spinning in The Trilogy of Two, her first novel. She keeps it all whirling with aplomb and no broken crockery—a bit of a circus performer herself. Plus, her line drawings are exquisite.”—Vanity Fair
“Juman Malouf brings her talent for conjuring the dark and whimsical to her debut young adult novel, The Trilogy of Two… [Malouf renders] every character in wonderfully moody and evocative pencil drawings. Filled with stray creatures of all kinds and nods to the occult, the author’s morose tale will comfort clever children of the same stripe.”—Interview Magazine
“A work of deep and powerful imagination . . . The twins’ adventures are riveting, but they’re always connected to human traits: love, estrangement, treachery, wonder, and, above all, bravery. The exquisite pencil drawings are meticulously shaded, giving shape, with the utmost detail and wit, to the people, animals, and oddities that Juman has created.”—Town & Country
“Charming . . . The lavishly illustrated fable of twin orphans growing up in a traveling circus in what Malouf calls a ‘futuristic Dickensian world’ was inspired by personal touchstones ranging from Charlotte Brontë to August Sander to her superstitious grandmother who believed in fortune-telling, and reflects Malouf’s distinctive sense of style, which seems vaguely late Victorian but ultimately unmoored to a time or place.”—T Magazine
“The Trilogy of Two is going to be a stand-out.”—Bustle
“[An] ambitious debut.”—Kirkus Reviews
“The world [Malouf] creates, through her appealing prose and her positively addictive illustrations, feels weird and true, vivid as a dream but way more entertaining.”
—Michael Chabon, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
“The Trilogy of Two is a dazzling and gorgeously illustrated tale.”
—Melissa de la Cruz, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Isle of the Lost: A Descendants Novel
“The Trilogy of Two is full of inventiveness, with a world that’s constructed ingeniously and characters who are vivid and attractive.”
—Philip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials
11/01/2015
Gr 5–8—In this quirky debut, Sonja and Charlotte are identical twins with preternatural musical (and magical) Talents. They use their abilities at the circus where they grew up and were raised by Tatty the Tattooed Lady. When their act begins to cause uncontrollable disasters at each performance and their adopted mother gets kidnapped by an eerie man and his diabolical cats, the sisters begin to unravel the mystery behind their gifts and destiny. Suddenly bereft of their Talents, the twins join forces with the cantankerous Alexandria, a band of shape-shifting Changelings, and the Fortune Teller to locate Tatty and their missing powers. From the dystopic Outskirts wastelands to the bustling Million-Mile-High City and from the Forlorn Forest to the Land Where the Plants Reign, Malouf populates her worlds with odd characters with Dickensian names and foibles. With hints of L. Frank Baum's Oz and C.S. Lewis's Narnia, this fantasy world doesn't quite reach its full potential. The book, divided in three parts, is peppered throughout with intricate line drawings, which add appeal but are often static and awkwardly placed. Driven Sonja and boy-crazy Charlotte are charming protagonists and their constant bickering rings true. The villains are truly evil, but the work's world-building and mythology seem only half-baked. VERDICT A quaint, if not fully realized, fantasy novel for upper middle grade and younger YA readers.—Shelley Diaz, School Library Journal
2015-09-21
In this ambitious debut, two preteen circus musicians visit hidden worlds and uncover not only family secrets, but a scheme to rob this world's children of all their talents. It's unclear whether the title refers to this doorstopper episode's three sections or (daunting thought) promised sequels. The tale is set in a dystopic world in which the oceans have somehow evaporated and garbage-strewn Outskirts surround walled cities that tower a thousand stories high. It sends impulsive Charlotte and her repressed twin, Sonja, on a double quest to rescue kidnapped Tatty Tatters, the tattooed lady who has lovingly raised them, and also to recover their magical musical talent—golden globs of which have been literally sucked from their ears by a malign cat. Visits ensue to a dreary megacity to see factories full of similarly robbed children and also to several Narnia-like magic lands to enlist aid from their residents. Malouf offers such requisite elements as an old prophecy, magical talismans, and nonhuman allies (adolescent shape-changers, in this case) to help with escapes and comic relief and a climactic battle that is as poorly choreographed as it is arbitrary. In addition, she tricks her tale out with dozens of vignettes and cold, if technically accomplished, portraits of figures with remote, enigmatic expressions. Despite all this, the resolution is spectacularly lazy. A sketchy, underthought epic, as mannered and artificial as the illustrations. (Fantasy. 12-15)
