A mystery serving as a gateway into Puerto Rican culture, traditions, and panorama, narrated by a one-of-a-kind Latina...
Precocious self-styled Detective Flaca returns, now 11 years old, in a mystery set in Puerto Rico.
The second book in the Flaca Files takes Flaca and her family (including older sister “La Bruja”) to Puerto Rico for a week to celebrate Los Reyes Magos, or Three Kings Day. Flaca learns that she’ll have to miss time from school, neglect pending cases, survive living with no air conditioning, wear mosquito repellent at all times, and face her fear of flying. Before boarding their San Juan–bound flight, she starts a file on what she deems a suspicious holiday (she’s certain the wise men don’t really ride flying camels) and makes a point to get to the bottom of it once in Puerto Rico. Vicente knows the Puerto Rican landscape well, taking readers beyond its well-known beaches to its mountains. Through Flaca's trenchant narration, readers get a fair sense of the new terrain, from the applause once the plane lands safely to the family gatherings to the coquí—a local tree frog known for its evening song. She neatly summarizes the holiday party as “eat, dance, talk, repeat.” In 56 pages, Vicente tackles Flaca's identity and general family values, but she does not recap basic details from her protagonist’s first outing, The Missing Chancleta (2013). The original English version occupies the first half of the book, and Baeza Ventura’s Spanish translation, the second half.
A mystery serving as a gateway into Puerto Rican culture, traditions, and panorama, narrated by a one-of-a-kind Latina gumshoe. (Bilingual mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: May 31, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5588-5-822-0
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Piñata Books/Arte Público
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2016
Delightful fun for budding mystery fans.
Only children, rejoice! A cozy mystery just for you! (People with siblings will probably enjoy it too.)
Debut novelist Cornett introduces the One and Onlys, a trio of mystery-solving only kids: Gloria Longshanks “Shanks” Hill, Alexander “Peephole” Calloway, and narrator Paul (alas, no nickname) Marconi. The trio has a knack for finding and solving low-level mysteries, but they come up against a true head-scratcher when the yard of a resident of their small town is covered in rubber ducks overnight. Working ahead of Officer Portnoy, who’s a little on the slow side, can Paul, Shanks, and Peephole solve the mystery? Cornett has a lot of fun with this adventure, dropping additional side mysteries, a subplot about small businesses, big corporations, and economics, and a town’s love of bratwurst into the mix. Most importantly, he plays fair with the clues throughout, allowing astute readers to potentially solve the case ahead of the trio. The tone and mystery are perfect for younger readers who want to test their detective skills but are put off by anything scary or gory. The pacing would serve well for chapter-by-chapter read-alouds. If there are any quibbles, it’s the lack of diversity of the cast, as it defaults white. Diversity exists in small towns, and this one is crying out for more. Hopefully a sequel will introduce additional faces.
Delightful fun for budding mystery fans. (Mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-3003-6
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Funny delivery, but some jokes really miss the mark.
An animal ghost seeks closure after enduring aquatic atrocities.
In this sequel to The Incredibly Dead Pets of Rex Dexter (2020), sixth grader Rex is determined to once again use his ability to communicate with dead animals for the greater good. A ghost narwhal’s visit gives Rex his next opportunity in the form of the clue “bad water.” Rex enlists Darvish—his Pakistani American human best friend—and Drumstick—his “faithful (dead) chicken”—to help crack the case. But the mystery is only one of Rex’s many roadblocks. For starters, Sami Mulpepper hugged him at a dance, and now she’s his “accidental girlfriend.” Even worse, Darvish develops one of what Rex calls “Game Preoccupation Disorders” over role-playing game Monsters & Mayhem that may well threaten the pair’s friendship. Will Rex become “a Sherlock without a Watson,” or can the two make amends in time to solve the mystery? This second outing effectively carries the “ghost-mist” torch from its predecessor without feeling too much like a formulaic carbon copy. Spouting terms like plausible deniability and in flagrante delicto, Rex makes for a hilariously bombastic (if unlikable) first-person narrator. The over-the-top style is contagious, and black-and-white illustrations throughout add cartoony punchlines to various scenes. Unfortunately, scenes in which humor comes at the expense of those with less status are downright cringeworthy, as when Rex, who reads as White, riffs on the impossibility of his ever pronouncing Darvish’s surname or he plays dumb by staring into space and drooling.
Funny delivery, but some jokes really miss the mark. (Paranormal mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5523-5
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
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