An amorally charming hero stars in this comically flamboyant heist mystery.
The over-the-top Swift family might be able to reconcile with their cousins—if art theft doesn’t interfere.
In this second series entry, as delightfully hilarious and witty as the first, Shenanigan Swift learns she has family in Paris—the Martinet cousins—with whom the English Swifts have long been feuding. The Swifts’ new Matriarch, Fauna, decrees that they must make peace with the Martinets, especially after the theatrical theft of a painting from the Swift family home. Ouvolpo is a flamboyant crime collective that lifts looted and stolen art and returns it to the rightful owners, leaving behind fantastical crime scene tableaux. Does their theft of A Clown Laments His Lot in Life by the famous surrealist Pierrot mean Ouvolpo believe the painting rightfully belongs to the Martinets? Piratical Uncle Maelstrom takes Shenanigan and her sister Phenomena to Paris, where Shenanigan is overwhelmed by the city, charmed by artist cousin Pomme, and enraged by the thieves. “No one breaks into my House, leaves behind an inflatable bird, and gets away with it,” she declares. But some of the Martinets are untrustworthy, even by family standards. Even Maelstrom’s loyalty is questionable, since he keeps flirting with The Law (in the person of his nemesis, Haitian Interpol inspector Hugo Rousseau), leaving Shenanigan, Phenomena, and Erf, their nonbinary cousin, to save both families. The family is multiracial, and queerness is comfortably normalized. Abundant wordplay and humor will keep the pages turning.
An amorally charming hero stars in this comically flamboyant heist mystery. (Mystery. 10-13)Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9780593533260
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish.
The dreary prospect of spending a lifetime making caskets instead of wonderful inventions prompts a young orphan to snatch up his little sister and flee. Where? To the circus, of course.
Fortunately or otherwise, John and 6-year-old Page join up with Boz—sometime human cannonball for the seedy Wandering Wayfarers and a “vertically challenged” trickster with a fantastic gift for sowing chaos. Alas, the budding engineer barely has time to settle in to begin work on an experimental circus wagon powered by chicken poop and dubbed (with questionable forethought) the Autopsy. The hot pursuit of malign and indomitable Great-Aunt Beauregard, the Coggins’ only living relative, forces all three to leave the troupe for further flights and misadventures. Teele spins her adventure around a sturdy protagonist whose love for his little sister is matched only by his fierce desire for something better in life for them both and tucks in an outstanding supporting cast featuring several notably strong-minded, independent women (Page, whose glare “would kill spiders dead,” not least among them). Better yet, in Boz she has created a scene-stealing force of nature, a free spirit who’s never happier than when he’s stirring up mischief. A climactic clutch culminating in a magnificently destructive display of fireworks leaves the Coggin sibs well-positioned for bright futures. (Illustrations not seen.)
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish. (Adventure. 11-13)Pub Date: April 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234510-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
Dolphin lovers will appreciate this look at our complicated relationship with these marine mammals.
Is dolphin-assisted therapy so beneficial to patients that it’s worth keeping a wild dolphin captive?
Twelve-year-old Lily has lived with her emotionally distant oncologist stepfather and a succession of nannies since her mother died in a car accident two years ago. Nannies leave because of the difficulty of caring for Adam, Lily’s severely autistic 4-year-old half brother. The newest, Suzanne, seems promising, but Lily is tired of feeling like a planet orbiting the sun Adam. When she meets blind Zoe, who will attend the same private middle school as Lily in the fall, Lily’s happy to have a friend. However, Zoe’s take on the plight of the captive dolphin, Nori, used in Adam’s therapy opens Lily’s eyes. She knows she must use her influence over her stepfather, who is consulting on Nori’s treatment for cancer (caused by an oil spill), to free the animal. Lily’s got several fine lines to walk, as she works to hold onto her new friend, convince her stepfather of the rightness of releasing Nori, and do what’s best for Adam. In her newest exploration of animal-human relationships, Rorby’s lonely, mature heroine faces tough but realistic situations. Siblings of children on the spectrum will identify with Lily. If the tale flirts with sentimentality and some of the characters are strident in their views, the whole never feels maudlin or didactic.
Dolphin lovers will appreciate this look at our complicated relationship with these marine mammals. (Fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: May 26, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-545-67605-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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