A chilling ghost story and an affirming tale about believing in yourself when no one else does.
Eva Mauberry thought boarding school was going to be hard, but she didn’t expect it to be haunted.
After her beloved MawMaw Septine passes away, 12-year-old Eva’s parents need to leave Tennessee and travel to Louisiana to settle her affairs, so they ask Eva to enroll in Blythe Academy, the boarding school in Mississippi that her father went to. Leaving family is always hard, but it’s especially challenging for Eva, who has anxiety and is autistic; she struggles when people aren’t understanding of her needs. But Eva, who’s Black, lucks out in rooming with kind and welcoming Afro-Latina Vee, and she’s quickly invited into her friend group, which includes chatty Ami, who’s Black and Thai and uses they/them pronouns. When strange things start happening around school, Eva realizes that Blythe is haunted by vengeful spirits. But nobody believes Eva sees ghosts, especially the resident mean girls. Fifty years ago, a building collapse killed a classroom full of students and their teacher. With Blythe’s centennial approaching, might tragedy strike again? The solid mystery at the heart of this story, which contains enough spooky elements for middle-grade horror lovers, reveals racist historical displacement practices. The author delivers a haunting read that’s enhanced by thoughtful representation of autism and anxiety.
A chilling ghost story and an affirming tale about believing in yourself when no one else does. (Horror. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781338825121
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
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
A real gem.
A 10-year old girl learns to adjust to a strange town, makes some fascinating friends, and fills the empty space in her heart thanks to a big old stray dog in this lyrical, moving, and enchanting book by a fresh new voice.
India Opal’s mama left when she was only three, and her father, “the preacher,” is absorbed in his own loss and in the work of his new ministry at the Open-Arms Baptist Church of Naomi [Florida]. Enter Winn-Dixie, a dog who “looked like a big piece of old brown carpet that had been left out in the rain.” But, this dog had a grin “so big that it made him sneeze.” And, as Opal says, “It’s hard not to immediately fall in love with a dog who has a good sense of humor.” Because of Winn-Dixie, Opal meets Miss Franny Block, an elderly lady whose papa built her a library of her own when she was just a little girl and she’s been the librarian ever since. Then, there’s nearly blind Gloria Dump, who hangs the empty bottle wreckage of her past from the mistake tree in her back yard. And, Otis, oh yes, Otis, whose music charms the gerbils, rabbits, snakes and lizards he’s let out of their cages in the pet store. Brush strokes of magical realism elevate this beyond a simple story of friendship to a well-crafted tale of community and fellowship, of sweetness, sorrow and hope. And, it’s funny, too.
A real gem. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0776-2
Page Count: 182
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2000
SEEN & HEARD
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