Series Review: Keys to the Kingdom by Garth Nix

So part of what I was doing while I was away was reading my way through a couple of  YA series. I have to admit, I am becoming an unmitigated Garth Nix fan. Mostly, Nix writes middle readers and YA fantasy, but some of it, as I've mentioned in previous posts, qualifies nicely as adult genre fantasy lit.

This is YA that grows somewhat with its audience. The protagonist, Arthur starts out as a 12 year old asthmatic human. During a particularly severe asthma attack, Arthur is chosen by the Will of the Architect (manifested by a green jade frog) thus saving his life and thrusting him into a crazy inheritance.

So to be clear, the Architect is kind of like God, otherwise know as the creator of the universe, and for some reason she disappeared 10.000 years ago. Things fell into disrepair and the trustees who were supposed to keep things going rebelled. Enter Arthur.

The series is in seven parts for seven keys and seven pieces of the will. This is an excellent adventure series aimed at a middle school audience of either gender. While it's initially aimed at the 6th grade audience, it does grow in sophistication over the course of the story. I particularly liked the growth in Arthur's character as his adventures and involvement with the supernatural change him. This is an excellent series.

Boxers & Saints by Gene Luen Yang

Gene Luen Yang is famous for writing the graphic novel American Born Chinese which was the first graphic novel ever nominated for a National Book Award. Yang is currently serving as the 5th ever ambassador for young people's literature (a Library of Congress designation).

Boxers is about the the Boxer Rebellion in China (1898) which happened when swarms of foreign missionaries and soldiers basically took over China and bullied chinese peasants. Little Bao watches the missionaries and chinese converts basically destroy his family and harass his village.

Bao joins, and eventually leads, a group of kung fu trained peasants who march on Peking. In terms of the story, the peasants are actually possessed by various chinese deities. While strange, it does a good job of emphasizing the conflict between two very different cultures. Yang does a good job of showing the desperation and outrage of the chinese citizenry as well as the unbelieveable rumors going around the demonized the white missionaries.

It's a bit of a downer and the fantastical elements are sometimes very jarring. However, it's also quite good.

The plot line of Saints overlaps with the story of Boxers. Vibiana, born as Four-Girl, was the unwanted girl child in a large family. She didn't even have a proper name and, while not actually abusive, she wasn't nurtured or feel loved. In fact, she is often called a demon and even comes to believe and embrace her "demon" nature

At least not until she encounters Christianity. What starts out as a way to escape her family and snag free cookies soon becomes a full conversion of faith. However, Vibiana soon discovers the flaws in her adopted faith/culture.

In many ways, Yang depicts the missionaries as sympathetic but flawed people. It's never as simple as good vs. evil and Yang conveys that.