Amari and the Great Game by B.B. Alston - ADVISABLE

 Amari and the Great Game (#2) by B.B. Alston, 423 pages. Balzer + Bray (Harper), 2022. $19

Language: G (0 swears, 0 ‘f’); Mature Content: G; Violence: PG (some danger, magical fighting)

BUYING ADVISORY: EL, MS - ADVISABLE

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

Amari is so excited for her next summer training as a Junior Agent , so she is taken by surprise when she receives a letter telling her not to come. Even when things are straightened out, things are out-of-control weird at the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs – Merlin and the rest of the Council are stuck in a time freeze and magicians, like Amari are the chief suspects. The League of Magicians isn’t any better. Dylan, her sworn enemy has escaped his unescapable prison and Amari is forced into a secret battle for the Crown. She has to lie to her friends, escape Acting Prime Minister Bane and his evil Director Harlowe, while juggling way too many deathly events that she is no way prepared to prevent.

Kid readers will enjoy the next book in the series. I did not as much. Amari is thrown directly into life and death situations which she has not had any training to handle and so no possible way to succeed. The evil is on more than one side and it all feels like preparatory to book three – a typical failing of second books and second movies – all action and little heart. Amari is pictured on the cover as black; other characters are various ethnicities, but that figures very little into the story.

Cindy Mitchell, Library Teacher, MLS