The series just keeps getting better; fans will hope for more.
Wallace and Mason Investigations is on the case again!
Howard and Ivy are still solving cases for kids at Grantleyville Middle School even though Howard has been told he will be suspended if he’s caught investigating on school grounds again. There is a graffiti tagger in town, and someone is sabotaging the middle school musical. Thankfully, Howard and Ivy now have a crew to help them with investigations, though Howard has trouble trusting his new associates. Still, the graffiti case bears fruit early (thanks to Howard’s personal attentions). The sabotage case is harder to crack—the list of suspects is long. When they narrow it down, Howard finds himself stung by a smart perpetrator, and he must rely on his associates. Can they trap the saboteur? Or will Wallace and Mason Investigations disband? Lyall continues to expand and improve her characterizations in this funny, entertaining, and suspenseful series of realistic(-ish) mysteries. Howard realizes he just can’t investigate on his own, especially when he is both trapped and suspended. Fans will be happy for the new case, and new readers should not miss out on the first two. Most characters present white, with naming conventions implying diversity.
The series just keeps getting better; fans will hope for more. (Mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4549-2968-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
Glitzy glimpses of life on the make, lightened by a focus on alternatives rather than consequences.
A con man’s son yearns for a different way of life.
Having helped his single dad fleece wealthy marks since kindergarten, Trey is adept at spotting their rich offspring in each new school he attends and cultivating them until the time comes for a quick getaway. Now that he’s 12, though, the urge to make real friends and put down some roots has become insistent—particularly since he’s drawn to Kaylee, a new classmate in his latest middle school. How can he convince his dad, who’s in the midst of luring local investors into a fantastically lucrative scheme involving a fictive electric car, that it’s time to bag the family profession and settle down? Korman goes more for ironic humor than the physical or stand-up sort in this book, as shown by Trey’s enrollment in an ethics class that forces him into some decidedly hypocritical stances. Much like Trey himself, instant new bestie Logan and his parents turn out to be not at all who they seem. And though there are no bullies or real baddies in the cast on the way to the story’s rosy but implausible resolution, Trey’s malign, high-strung, and wildly reckless huckster of a little sister from hell definitely adds both conflict and suspense to this provocative outing. Main characters read white.
Glitzy glimpses of life on the make, lightened by a focus on alternatives rather than consequences. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: July 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781338826753
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2024
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