Legacy and the Queen

by Annie Matthew (Author)

Legacy and the Queen
Reading Level: 6th − 7th Grade

From the mind of basketball legend and Academy Award-winning storyteller Kobe Bryant comes a new tale of finding your inner magic against all odds. GAME. SET. MAGIC.

Game - Tennis means life and death for the residents of the magical kingdom of Nova, and for twelve-year-old Legacy, it's the only thing getting her through the long days taking care of the other kids at the orphanage. That's all about to change when she hears about Silla's tournament.

Set - Silla, the ruler of Nova, hosts an annual tournament for the less fortunate of her citizens to come and prove themselves and win entrance to the Academy, where they can train to compete at nationals. The prize is Silla's favor and enough cash to keep open the orphanage, and Legacy has her heart set on both.

Magic - What Legacy has yet to know is that the other players have something besides better skills and more money than she does. In Nova, tennis can unlock magic. Magic that Silla used to save the kingdom long ago and magic that her competitors have been training in for months already. Now, with the world turned against her and the orphanage at stake, Legacy has to learn to use her passion for the game to rise above those around her and shine.

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School Library Journal

Gr 6 Up Legacy Petrin loves tennis. With her beat-up racket and worn old tennis balls, she volleys against the orphanage wall in the early hours before she helps her father, the orphanage manager, feed and care for the smaller children. Though her dad begs her to give up her tennis dreams, her best friend pushes her to do more. When the High Consul of the fictional country Nova announces an open competition for the disadvantaged children in the provinces, Legacy flouts her father's rules, running away and competing for a chance at a spot in the country's elite tennis academy. When Legacy wins the tournament, she finds herself in an unkind school where everyone is out for their own personal gain. You see, tennis is not just a sport in Nova—it is a conduit for magic called "grana," which tennis players can manifest to affect the environment. If Legacy wants to succeed, she has to find her grana, navigate the dicey social scene, and not be killed by the mythical monster who is her unconventional training partner. This is an ambitious crossover between fantasy, dystopian, and sports fiction, like a tennis-themed mash-up of Suzanne Collins's "Hunger Games" series and Leigh Bardugo's "Grisha" trilogy. Once the intrigue picks up around the quarter mark, the novel becomes an easy read. Still, it tries to accomplish much in a short page count, with mixed success. VERDICT Bryant's byline and the unique subject matter could drum up interest. Consider as an additional purchase. --Abby Bussen, Muskego Public Library, WI

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Publishers Weekly

In this sports-themed fantasy debut created by Matthew in collaboration with Kobe Bryant, a girl must win a tennis tournament in order to save the orphanage run by her father and help her best friend, who faces factory work instead of school. Despite her lack of formal sports training, Legacy Petrin, 12, has enormous raw talent and drive, and earns a scholarship to a prestigious national academy founded by a former tennis champion known as the Queen. In order to succeed against her more privileged competitors, though, Legacy must make new friends and allies and master her innate magical abilities, which are shared by all great tennis players in the Republic of Nova. The tennis action takes a backseat to worldbuilding and explanations of the magic system (though the combination of magic and tennis offers wonderful concepts in the form of building endurance against things with fangs and attitude), and the plot relies on some predictable turning points. Still, the story of a young heroine who must find friends at a specialized school so that she can prove herself to her privileged critics has plenty of charm, and Legacy is a protagonist worth cheering for. Ages 13-up. (Sept.)

Copyright 2019 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

"Legacy is a strong character, and the secondary characters also have interesting backstories. . . . Magic, tennis action, and family secrets are woven into an original coming-of-age tale."—Kirkus Reviews

"Wonderful. . . . [This] story of a young heroine who must find friends at a specialized school so that she can prove herself to her privileged critics has plenty of charm, and Legacy is a protagonist worth cheering for."—Publisher's Weekly

"An ambitious crossover between fantasy, dystopian, and sports fiction . . . a tennis themed mash-up of Suzanne Collins's Hunger Games series and Leigh Bardugo's Grisha trilogy."—School Library Journal
Annie Matthew
Kobe Bryant was an Academy Award winner, a New York Times best-selling author, and the CEO of Granity Studios, a multimedia content creation company. He was also a five-time NBA champion, two-time NBA Finals MVP, NBA MVP, and two-time Olympic gold medalist. Above all else, he was a loving husband and a doting father to four girls. In everything he built, Kobe was driven to teach the next generation how to reach their full potential. He believed in the beauty of the process, in the strength that comes from inner magic, and in achieving the impossible. His legacy continues today.

Annie Matthew is a novelist and a poet. In a former life, she was a professional athlete. She now lives in Iowa with her gray furry dog, Gus.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781949520033
Lexile Measure
820
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Granity Studios
Publication date
September 03, 2019
Series
Legacy and the Queen
BISAC categories
YAF019000 - Young Adult Fiction | Fantasy | General
YAF058000 - Young Adult Fiction | Social Themes | General (see also headings under Family)
YAF018050 - Young Adult Fiction | Family | Orphans & Foster Homes
YAF059000 - Young Adult Fiction | Sports & Recreation | General
Library of Congress categories
-

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