Foiled

Publishers Weekly

Aliera Carstairs attends a small high school in New York City and feels like an outcast in its crowds of cliques, jocks, goths, nerds, and preps. She's always been a loner and doesn't know where she belongs. The only control she has is fencing and the role-playing games she plays with her disabled cousin. Then the gorgeous and flirtatious Avery Castle becomes her lab partner, and a crush quickly ensues. Plus there's her mysterious practice sword with the irremovable ruby in the hilt. Famed YA author Yolen weaves a familiar tale of the heroine's journey, while addressing Aliera's helplessness before Avery's glamour. But Avery has some secrets of his own—cutting up frogs in lab class is his idea of fun—and all the threads converge at Grand Central Station in a botched first date that turns into a high fantasy adventure. Cavallaro's art is rounded and cartoony, handling action and the fantasy elements well while skimping a bit on characterization—his Avery is just a sorta cute cartoon boy, not a devastating heartbreaker, but Aliera is a strong and likable protagonist. Yolen weaves her knowledge of fencing vividly throughout the plot, powerfully creating romance, mystery, adventure, fantasy, and drama, all rolled into a strong narrative. Ages 11–up. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Aliera Carstairs attends a small high school in New York City and feels like an outcast in its crowds of cliques, jocks, goths, nerds, and preps. She's always been a loner and doesn't know where she belongs. The only control she has is fencing and the role-playing games she plays with her disabled cousin. Then the gorgeous and flirtatious Avery Castle becomes her lab partner, and a crush quickly ensues. Plus there's her mysterious practice sword with the irremovable ruby in the hilt. Famed YA author Yolen weaves a familiar tale of the heroine's journey, while addressing Aliera's helplessness before Avery's glamour. But Avery has some secrets of his own—cutting up frogs in lab class is his idea of fun—and all the threads converge at Grand Central Station in a botched first date that turns into a high fantasy adventure. Cavallaro's art is rounded and cartoony, handling action and the fantasy elements well while skimping a bit on characterization—his Avery is just a sorta cute cartoon boy, not a devastating heartbreaker, but Aliera is a strong and likable protagonist. Yolen weaves her knowledge of fencing vividly throughout the plot, powerfully creating romance, mystery, adventure, fantasy, and drama, all rolled into a strong narrative. Ages 11–up. (Apr.)

From the Publisher

Review in 3/15 Booklist

Aliera may have listened too well to her fencing coach’s advice: “You must always protect your heart.”  Besting competitors twice her age in tournaments and keeping to a strict routine of fencing practice, homework, and role-playing games, Aliera is a loner and likes it that way – until she becomes lab partners with the cutest boy in school.  She initially resists his charms but is won over when he asks for a date.  Turns out her new ruby-handled foil is the key to his interest in her, and to the yet-unseen magical dimension she must keep in balance.  Yolen’s first foray into the graphic format is a success precisely because she incorporates the best weapon in her arsenal – fantasy.  In Aliera she has created a strong, conflicted, and relatable girl hero who wields her wariness for protection.  Cavallaro’s artwork suits Aliera’s monochrome existence, but bursts to life when she finally sees (in color!) the faerie beasties cheering her on.  The explanation and source of Aliera’s status as a protector of worlds will have to wait for further volumes to be revealed.  – Courtney Jones

Review in 3/15 Kirkus Reviews

Veteran fantasist Yolen introduces the utterly charming and sassy Aliera, a quirky tenth-grade loner who’s both color-blind and an expert fencer, in this charming graphic novel. Aliera slinks her way through high school, focusing on fencing practice, reading and engaging in role-playing games with her cousin. When hunky Avery Castle arrives at her school, all the girls are immediately smitten, and Aliera also falls for Avery’s good looks and charm, though she tries to downplay her feelings for him. An odd turn of events throws Aliera’s routine off balance, and everything in her life she knew to be real—from a practice foil her mother bought her at a tag sale to the lothario Avery to the entire world as she knew it—is suddenly not what it appears to be. This fantastic change brings color into her life, and the drab grays that wash over Cavallaro’s panels now burst with vibrantly hued blasts. An enchanting tale, with hints of a possible continuance. For fantasy lovers, this is an absolute must-read. (Graphic fantasy. 12 & up)

Review in 3/10 SLJ

Gr 8 Up–The chapters in this clever graphic novel follow the terms of a fencing match, from “Engagement” to “Disengagement,” with successive stages in between. Most of the illustrations are done in two tones as Aliera Carstairs makes it through her humdrum days in high school, where she doesn’t fit in. Color begins to appear when she puts on her fencing mask at Grand Central Station and the fantasy begins. Illustrations complement the text well, with larger pictures reflecting the character’s situation and feelings. After meeting her date and admitting to seeing ogres and dragons when wearing her mask, he thinks she is crazy, but a wild adventure ensues. She loses her weapon but it is returned by a fairylike creature who tells her that the foil her mother purchased at a tag sale is the source of her powers, and she is the defender and now part of a world called Helfdon. The ending will leave readers anxiously awaiting the second installment in the series.–Karen Alexander, Lake Fenton High School, Linden, MI

Reviewed in 4/5 Publisher’s Weekly

Aliera Carstairs attends a small high school in New York City and feels like an outcast in its crowds of cliques, jocks, goths, nerds, and preps. She's always been a loner and doesn't know where she belongs. The only control she has is fencing and the role-playing games she plays with her disabled cousin. Then the gorgeous and flirtatious Avery Castle becomes her lab partner, and a crush quickly ensues. Plus there's her mysterious practice sword with the irremovable ruby in the hilt. Famed YA author Yolen weaves a familiar tale of the heroine's journey, while addressing Aliera's helplessness before Avery's glamour. But Avery has some secrets of his own—cutting up frogs in lab class is his idea of fun—and all the threads converge at Grand Central Station in a botched first date that turns into a high fantasy adventure. Cavallaro's art is rounded and cartoony, handling action and the fantasy elements well while skimping a bit on characterization—his Avery is just a sorta cute cartoon boy, not a devastating heartbreaker, but Aliera is a strong and likable protagonist. Yolen weaves her knowledge of fencing vividly throughout the plot, powerfully creating romance, mystery, adventure, fantasy, and drama, all rolled into a strong narrative. Ages 11–up. (Apr.)

Children's Literature

This first graphic novel by celebrated fantasy author Yolen introduces readers to Aliera, a young fencing champion, whose life changes in strange ways after her mother buys her a fencing foil with a ruby glued to the hilt. At first, the changes seem positive—the weapon helps in Aliera's fencing matches and even earns her the attention of her cute lab partner Avery. But when Aliera learns that she can see magical creatures by looking through her fencing mask, she starts wondering if she is going crazy or if her unusual abilities hint at a greater destiny. As the first installment in a planned two-part series, this novel succeeds brilliantly as a detailed portrait of a young outsider's everyday life, but not, ironically enough, as high fantasy. Yolen spends most of the story exploring Aliera's struggles with school, her fencing, and her private insecurities, while devoting a only few chapters to the fantasy world Aliera finds near the end. Ideally this flaw will be corrected in the sequel as Aliera ends this book wondering about the magic world she is capable of seeing and her place in it. If the story moves in this direction, readers can expect great things from Cavallaro's art based on his exceptional drawings of the faeries, trolls, and dragons Aliera sees. In a creative move, because Aliera is color blind, Cavallaro paints all of his scenes in shades of gray, but he gives the magical creatures bright, vivid colors as Aliera gains her faerie sight. It is a clever visual strategy—somewhat akin to the switch from sepia tones to Technicolor in MGM's The Wizard of Oz—that makes the book so entertaining visually. Reviewer: Michael Jung

School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up—The chapters in this clever graphic novel follow the terms of a fencing match, from "Engagement" to "Disengagement," with successive stages in between. Most of the illustrations are done in two tones as Aliera Carstairs makes it through her humdrum days in high school, where she doesn't fit in. Color begins to appear when she puts on her fencing mask at Grand Central Station and the fantasy begins. Illustrations complement the text well, with larger pictures reflecting the character's situation and feelings. After meeting her date and admitting to seeing ogres and dragons when wearing her mask, he thinks she is crazy, but a wild adventure ensues. She loses her weapon but it is returned by a fairylike creature who tells her that the foil her mother purchased at a tag sale is the source of her powers, and she is the defender and now part of a world called Helfdon. The ending will leave readers anxiously awaiting the second installment in the series.—Karen Alexander, Lake Fenton High School, Linden, MI

Kirkus Reviews

Veteran fantasist Yolen introduces the utterly charming and sassy Aliera, a quirky tenth-grade loner who's both color-blind and an expert fencer, in this charming graphic novel. Aliera slinks her way through high school, focusing on fencing practice, reading and engaging in role-playing games with her cousin. When hunky Avery Castle arrives at her school, all the girls are immediately smitten, and Aliera also falls for Avery's good looks and charm, though she tries to downplay her feelings for him. An odd turn of events throws Aliera's routine off balance, and everything in her life she knew to be real-from a practice foil her mother bought her at a tag sale to the lothario Avery to the entire world as she knew it-is suddenly not what it appears to be. This fantastic change brings color into her life, and the drab grays that wash over Cavallaro's panels now burst with vibrantly hued blasts. An enchanting tale, with hints of a possible continuance. For fantasy lovers, this is an absolute must-read. (Graphic fantasy. 12 & up)