The Last of the High Kings - Hardcover

Thompson follows her international bestseller, The New Policeman (2007), with this sequel, also set in a contemporary Irish countryside simmering with magic. J. J. Liddy, 15 in Policeman, is now grown, married, and the father of four. His daughter, Jenny, claims to keep company with ghosts and a magical goat, and Thompson gradually reveals the source of her odd behavior: she’s a fairy changeling whom J. J. and his wife swapped with their own baby in a complicated arrangement. A convoluted, shaky scheme to return Jenny to the fairy world raises a number of troubling questions about familial love and loyalty that distract from what seems to be the story’s central focus: an ancient, epic battle between supernatural forces. Particularly far-fetched is the part of J. J.’s teenage sister, Hazel, who agrees to publicly fake a pregnancy as part of the ruse. But as in Policeman, Thompson will captivate readers with her depiction of the suspenseful battle between unseen, ageless forces and with her character Jenny, who has the power to rescue or destroy worlds that grown-ups have ravaged. Grades 7-10. --Gillian Engberg