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A review by wrentheblurry
Foiled by Jane Yolen
3.0
The 'activity' here from my shelves is fencing, as the title suggests. Foiled makes an abrupt change after the 5th chapter from a high school-drama-I-really-like-this-boy-a-lot-but-I-am-having-lots-of-issues-right-now focus to a fantasy-oriented tale. The reason for me only giving this title three stars likes there; I strongly liked the first five chapters, and the main characters inner turmoil and pining over the hot new guy at school. The writing is solid, the storyline was appropriate, and the art is very well done. The addition of fencing as a theme is not something I see much of, if at all. Here, it really works, as both an exploration of the protagonist and a metaphor for her romantic life. I even learned a bit about the sport, although my knowledge was quite minimal beforehand.
I don't want to spoil the second part of the book any more than I may already have, so I won't talk about the storyline from that point. I will say that my 10-year-old son kind of liked the switch, but I didn't really expect him to be that interested in a high school romance story. Maybe Foiled is trying to appeal to too wide of an audience? Still, the selective coloring used in the latter half (the artwork in the first were muted greys/greens/blues...like a dark sepia tone) is very well done.
I don't want to spoil the second part of the book any more than I may already have, so I won't talk about the storyline from that point. I will say that my 10-year-old son kind of liked the switch, but I didn't really expect him to be that interested in a high school romance story. Maybe Foiled is trying to appeal to too wide of an audience? Still, the selective coloring used in the latter half (the artwork in the first were muted greys/greens/blues...like a dark sepia tone) is very well done.