Thirteen eerie yet oddly cheery stories from the ever-reliable Aiken—mostly set in Cornwall (her favorite locale), mostly contemporary, and mostly ghostly. In "Lob's Girl," a German shepherd is so attached to teenager Sandy Pengelly that he walks 400 miles to stay by her side. . .and comes back from the dead to save her life. Similarly, in "Miss Spitfire," an old, dying RAF vet is reunited with his long-dead True Love—who makes a ghostly reappearance just in time to foil a dastardly hijacking. And the other spooks here include a chattery Scotswoman (haunting the house where she was murdered), vengeful spirits within the pavement of a road, and a hunchback who was cheated of his rightful romance. Somewhat less effective are Aiken's ventures into other occult formulas: the lethal power of an evil talisman, stolen from a museum during a school outing; the sudden death of a boy's least favorite teacher—caused, perhaps, by his vivid dream-powers. But one of the standouts here is a completely non-supernatural thriller: "The Windowbox Waltz," which saucily packs enough plot for a Buchan novel—teenager Rosemary gets entangled with spies—into 20 pages. And the collection's closer is a brief, darkly amusing daub of doomsday science-fiction: an English-garden encounter between a teenage alien and an elderly minister. True, Aiken's teen-age heroes and narrators can occasionally be too bland or sweet. ("So, our hearts going pit-a-pat. . .") For the most part, however, these are crisp, unfussy mini-chillers—tidily plotted, reasonably varied, nicely balanced between creepiness and warm sentiment.
Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1984
ISBN: 0440201853
Page Count: 203
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1984
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A nice but not requisite purchase.
A retelling of the classic fairy tale in board-book format and with a Mexican setting.
Though simplified for a younger audience, the text still relates the well-known tale: mean-spirited stepmother, spoiled stepsisters, overworked Cinderella, fairy godmother, glass slipper, charming prince, and, of course, happily-ever-after. What gives this book its flavor is the artwork. Within its Mexican setting, the characters are olive-skinned and dark-haired. Cultural references abound, as when a messenger comes carrying a banner announcing a “FIESTA” in beautiful papel picado. Cinderella is the picture of beauty, with her hair up in ribbons and flowers and her typically Mexican many-layered white dress. The companion volume, Snow White, set in Japan and illustrated by Misa Saburi, follows the same format. The simplified text tells the story of the beautiful princess sent to the forest by her wicked stepmother to be “done away with,” the dwarves that take her in, and, eventually, the happily-ever-after ending. Here too, what gives the book its flavor is the artwork. The characters wear traditional clothing, and the dwarves’ house has the requisite shoji screens, tatami mats and cherry blossoms in the garden. The puzzling question is, why the board-book presentation? Though the text is simplified, it’s still beyond the board-book audience, and the illustrations deserve full-size books.
A nice but not requisite purchase. (Board book/fairy tale. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-7915-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
