A sensitive coming-of-age tale that shows the rewards of intellectual and personal growth.
A girl visiting her aunt in Texas works to unravel a mystery in this middle-grade novel.
On the eve of summer vacation in 1998, 12-year-old Lea McKinney learns the terrible news: Her parents are separating. The family will be split over the summer since Lea’s mother will be traveling in Europe for a new job while her archaeologist father is away on a dig. T.J., Lea’s younger brother, will stay with their grandparents while Lea goes to her mother’s sister, Aunt Meg, an artist who lives on the Gulf Coast. Lea doesn’t know her aunt very well, and Texas is a long way from her home in Virginia. The small community and the nearby beach invite exploration, however, and Lea soon encounters an intriguing mystery in the dunes. What seems to be the ghost of a girl in a long blue dress appears and then disappears along with little human figures sculpted in the sand. Aunt Meg dismisses Lea at first, but with her new friend, Teri, and other resources, like the local historical society, the girl pieces clues together through research, relics, and stories. In her debut, Kerr offers fine character development via a resilient heroine who responds with growing maturity to daunting adjustments. Adults, too, are capable of growth; the childless Aunt Meg admits honestly that she also needs to change. Lea’s curiosity, intelligence, and hard work as she researches musty archives, joins a dig, and more, are admirable and engaging—a model readers can follow. Another plus is how the search’s practical details and the satisfactions of discovery become as absorbing as the ghost story.
A sensitive coming-of-age tale that shows the rewards of intellectual and personal growth.Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-9883560-3-0
Page Count: 222
Publisher: Chanter Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 3, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
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
A heartily satisfying string of entertaining near-catastrophes, replete with narrow squeaks and spectral howls.
Three young ghost trappers take on deadly wraiths and solve an old murder case in the bargain to kick off Stroud’s new post-Bartimaeus series.
Narrator Lucy Carlyle hopes to put her unusual sensitivity to supernatural sounds to good use by joining Lockwood & Co.—one of several firms that have risen to cope with the serious ghost Problem that has afflicted England in recent years. As its third member, she teams with glib, ambitious Anthony Lockwood and slovenly-but-capable scholar George Cubbins to entrap malign spirits for hire. The work is fraught with peril, not only because a ghost’s merest touch is generally fatal, but also, as it turns out, as none of the three is particularly good at careful planning and preparation. All are, however, resourceful and quick on their feet, which stands them in good stead when they inadvertently set fire to a house while discovering a murder victim’s desiccated corpse. It comes in handy again when they later rashly agree to clear Combe Carey Hall, renowned for centuries of sudden deaths and regarded as one of England’s most haunted manors. Despite being well-stocked with scream-worthy ghastlies, this lively opener makes a light alternative for readers who find the likes of Joseph Delaney’s Last Apprentice series too grim and creepy for comfort.
A heartily satisfying string of entertaining near-catastrophes, replete with narrow squeaks and spectral howls. (Ghost adventure. 11-13)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4231-6491-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
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