Zenda 2: A New Dimension
Reviewed with Ken Petti'sZenda and the Gazing Ball.Gr. 4-7.Gazing Ballsets 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. InA 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 ShermanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved