Zenda 1: Zenda and the Gazing Ball - Softcover

Amodeo, John; Petti, Ken; Westwood, Cassandra

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0448432234 ISBN 13: 9780448432236

Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap, 2004

Synopsis

Twelve-year-old Zenda of Azureblue, a magical planet, looks forward to her gazing ball ceremony to reveal the unique lessons to guide her through life, but when she breaks her gazing ball, the future seems lost.

About this title

From Booklist:

Reviewed with Ken Petti's Zenda.

Gr. 4-7. Gazing Ball sets the scene: children on Azureblue receive gazing balls at birth, but the powerful balls, which reveal 13 messages about a child's destiny, are locked away until a child is 12 1/2 years old. Headstrong Zenda can't resist sneaking in to look at the balls, and when she handles hers, it shatters into 13 pieces that immediately disappear. A desperate attempt to recover the shards nearly ends in disaster before Zenda comes to understand the consequences of her actions and mysteriously receives the first shard and its magical message. In A New Dimension, Zenda is mysteriously transported to a parallel world where all her problems appear to have been solved. Unfortunately, that's not quite the case, but Zenda learns from her mistakes and is awarded two more shards. The adult characters are stereotypic and the plot is a disconcerting fusion of New Age fantasy and the antics of middle-school girls. It's the intriguing premise and tantalizing hints about Zenda's future that will hook many preteen girls. Chris Sherman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From School Library Journal:

Grade 4-6–Zenda lives on Azureblue, a planet where each youth receives a gazing ball that reveals his or her lifelong magical skill. She participates in a scheme to peek at hers before the ceremony and it shatters. With sound guidance from her parents and a helpful psychic, she figures out how to start restoring it and finds the first of the 13 crystal fragments. Zenda is a likable yet flawed heroine, tending toward poor decisions and histrionics, but able to accept reasonable consequences. The authors set a brisk pace, keeping the focus on the protagonist and her story. Although this book doesn't have the dense atmosphere of many successful fantasies, it does have a lighthearted quality that affirms the girl's sense of intelligence and responsibility. Zenda is for those who prefer a fantasy with a New Age bent.–Pat Leach, Lincoln City Libraries, NE
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0448432234
• ISBN 13: 9780448432236
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144