Unevenly paced yet satisfyingly spooky in the end.
A curious girl explores her strong connection to the spirit world in this translated German import set in England.
Mia Jones’ life is full of mystery. She feels less at home with her adoptive parents than she does with her aunt Harriet, her adoptive mom’s sister. Mia loves spending time at Harriet’s dusty old shop, Pandora’s Antiques, which was named after Mia’s late grandmother, Pandora Pickwick. When her parents take off to travel around the U.S. for their shoelace business, Mia persuades them to let her stay with Aunt Harriet. The shop, whose aisles are crammed with curios, is also, as Mia discovers, “a placement agency for ghosts” in need of new homes. Soon, unlike most people, Mia is able to see the ghosts in broad daylight. She befriends a spectral boy named Alistair, and together they experiment with the thin line between the human and spirit dimensions. But the deeper Mia dives into the spirit world, the more complicated and exciting things get: Vicious worms prey on unlucky ghosts, an ominous figure with a noose haunts the corners of Mia’s vision, and Pickwick ancestor Sir Paxton Blake plans his 400th birthday party—with a special role for Mia. Following some pace-slowing exposition, the story ramps up into a flurry of action and adventure, stretching the imagination and hurtling headlong toward an eerie, exciting resolution. The phrase “real parents” is repeatedly used to refer to white-presenting Mia’s birth parents.
Unevenly paced yet satisfyingly spooky in the end. (Paranormal. 8-13)Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781646900466
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Arctis Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: tomorrow
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel.
Sure signs that the creative wells are running dry at last, the Captain’s ninth, overstuffed outing both recycles a villain (see Book 4) and offers trendy anti-bullying wish fulfillment.
Not that there aren’t pranks and envelope-pushing quips aplenty. To start, in an alternate ending to the previous episode, Principal Krupp ends up in prison (“…a lot like being a student at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School, except that the prison had better funding”). There, he witnesses fellow inmate Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) escape in a giant Robo-Suit (later reduced to time-traveling trousers). The villain sets off after George and Harold, who are in juvie (“not much different from our old school…except that they have library books here.”). Cut to five years previous, in a prequel to the whole series. George and Harold link up in kindergarten to reduce a quartet of vicious bullies to giggling insanity with a relentless series of pranks involving shaving cream, spiders, effeminate spoof text messages and friendship bracelets. Pilkey tucks both topical jokes and bathroom humor into the cartoon art, and ups the narrative’s lexical ante with terms like “pharmaceuticals” and “theatrical flair.” Unfortunately, the bullies’ sad fates force Krupp to resign, so he’s not around to save the Earth from being destroyed later on by Talking Toilets and other invaders…
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-17534-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
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