A promising start to a weird new series.
Ada Goth solves a mystery.
Ada lives in Ghastly-Gorm Hall with her reclusive father, Lord Goth. Since her mother passed away, her father can barely stand to spend time with Ada, so she spends her days hanging about, keeping to herself and staying out of the servants’ ways. One night, the ghost of a mouse named Ishmael comes to visit Ada, and together they work to discover the truth behind strange happenings at Ghastly-Gorm Hall. Ada is supported by twisted and kooky characters, and the author delights in bending this odd world close to the breaking point. Riddell peppers the story with literary references older readers will chuckle at, but the jokes never come at the expense of the enjoyment of younger readers. The mystery is a bit flat: the sinister gamekeeper is clearly up to something, and the author never suggests otherwise. In compensation for this narrative bust, the characters do more than their part to make the book one worth reading. Future installments are welcome as long as they involve governess Lucy Borgia, pals Emily and William Cabbage, and the Attic Club. The illustrations complement the twisted world nicely. The characters (the humans all seem to be white) are all drawn with fine, squiggly lines and detailed with precision. A small, removable novella, Memoirs of a Mouse, is tucked into a pocket in the back cover.
A promising start to a weird new series. (Mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-230-75980-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Macmillan UK/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
A candid and powerful reckoning of history.
Summer is off to a terrible start for 12-year old African-American Candice Miller.
Six months after her parents’ divorce, Candice and her mother leave Atlanta to spend the summer in Lambert, South Carolina, at her grandmother’s old house. When her grandmother Abigail passed two years ago, in 2015, Candice and her mother struggled to move on. Now, without any friends, a computer, cellphone, or her grandmother, Candice suffers immense loneliness and boredom. When she starts rummaging through the attic and stumbles upon a box of her grandmother’s belongings, she discovers an old letter that details a mysterious fortune buried in Lambert and that asks Abigail to find the treasure. After Candice befriends the shy, bookish African-American kid next door, 11-year-old Brandon Jones, the pair set off investigating the clues. Each new revelation uncovers a long history of racism and tension in the small town and how one family threatened the black/white status quo. Johnson’s latest novel holds racism firmly in the light. Candice and Brandon discover the joys and terrors of the reality of being African-American in the 1950s. Without sugarcoating facts or dousing it in post-racial varnish, the narrative lets the children absorb and reflect on their shared history. The town of Lambert brims with intrigue, keeping readers entranced until the very last page.
A candid and powerful reckoning of history. (Historical mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-545-94617-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Levine/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2018
PROFILES
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
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