A thrilling read with an engaging protagonist.
A tween who is obsessed with Agatha Christie moves into a haunted house.
Twelve-year-old Ginny Anderson and her older brother, Leo, are less than thrilled to be spending a month of summer vacation away from their Chicago home. They are relocating to Saugatuck, Michigan, for their historical restoration expert father’s research. Ginny will be missing the mystery writing workshop she’s been looking forward to, and Leo doubts there’ll be many basketball courts in the sleepy town. Oh, and there’s one more thing: The fancy historic house they’ll be staying in might be haunted. Saugatuck residents whisper of mutant creatures concocted by a long-ago mad scientist roaming the surrounding woods, and everyone avoids the place. It doesn’t take long for Ginny to encounter some spooky situations, but with the help of a new local friend, Will, she is on the case. The setup is familiar and the tone consistent with other middle-grade spook books, but the novel really shines when it spends time with Ginny as she works out the manor’s mysterious past; she is a swell character, shaded enough to feel genuine. The mystery is exciting but a bit uneven: There’s a lot of buildup, with occasional thrills and chills before the investigation begins, but the reveal comes so quickly readers may be forgiven for assuming there’ll be a last-minute twist. Regardless, the scares are real, the resolution satisfying, and a sequel would be welcome. Main characters are presumed White.
A thrilling read with an engaging protagonist. (Mystery. 9-13)Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-72820-975-3
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Sourcebooks Young Readers
Review Posted Online: July 7, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this...
Sentenced to a brutal juvenile detention camp for a crime he didn't commit, a wimpy teenager turns four generations of bad family luck around in this sunburnt tale of courage, obsession, and buried treasure from Sachar (Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger, 1995, etc.).
Driven mad by the murder of her black beau, a schoolteacher turns on the once-friendly, verdant town of Green Lake, Texas, becomes feared bandit Kissin' Kate Barlow, and dies, laughing, without revealing where she buried her stash. A century of rainless years later, lake and town are memories—but, with the involuntary help of gangs of juvenile offenders, the last descendant of the last residents is still digging. Enter Stanley Yelnats IV, great-grandson of one of Kissin' Kate's victims and the latest to fall to the family curse of being in the wrong place at the wrong time; under the direction of The Warden, a woman with rattlesnake venom polish on her long nails, Stanley and each of his fellow inmates dig a hole a day in the rock-hard lake bed. Weeks of punishing labor later, Stanley digs up a clue, but is canny enough to conceal the information of which hole it came from. Through flashbacks, Sachar weaves a complex net of hidden relationships and well-timed revelations as he puts his slightly larger-than-life characters under a sun so punishing that readers will be reaching for water bottles.
Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this rugged, engrossing adventure. (Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 978-0-374-33265-5
Page Count: 233
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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