Legacy and the Queen (Legacy and the Queen Series #1)

by Annie Matthew, Kobe Bryant (Created by)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781949520033
Publisher:	Granity Studios
Publication date:	09/03/2019
Series:	Legacy and the Queen Series , #1
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	1,479
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.80(d)
Lexile:	820L (what's this?)
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

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. 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.

Editorial Reviews

08/19/2019

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.)

Publishers Weekly

"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

From the Publisher

07/26/2019

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

School Library Journal

2019-06-23
A 12-year-old girl living in a kingdom ruled by a mysterious queen dreams of attaining her sport's highest prize.

Legacy Petrin lives and works in the financially strapped orphanage in the provinces run by her father and rises early every day to practice tennis with her old racket. After her best friend, Van, excitedly tells her about a scholarship competition for a spot at an esteemed academy and the opportunity to try out for the national championships, Legacy runs away to the city to compete. After winning, she learns there is still much she doesn't know: The players are not just proficient in tennis, but also have magical skills that they use to their advantage. Legacy befriends Pippa, a knowledgeable girl from an elite tennis family, and acquires a builder, or coach, Javi. With Pippa and Javi at her side, Legacy makes her way through the competition, despite sabotage attempts, learning secrets about her own family along the way. Legacy is a strong character, and the secondary characters also have interesting backstories. The storyline is reminiscent of other dystopian stories, but centering tennis—with lively descriptions of matches that give a strong sense of the sport—is an unusual touch. Most characters are white, although Javi is brown-skinned, and some other characters of color are mentioned.

Magic, tennis action, and family secrets are woven into an original coming-of-age tale. (Fantasy. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews

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