by JoAnna Rowe ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 31, 2024
A world-beater of a boy detective brings film noir’s legacy to a younger audience.
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In Rowe’s middle-grade novel, a Sam Spade–obsessed 11-year-old pursues his own Maltese Falcon.
On his fifth birthday, Frank Plum’s dad leaves his mom and disappears from his life. The same day, his grandpa introduces him to a new hero, the hard-nosed Sam Spade, as played by the legendary Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon. By 11, Frank has reimagined himself as Icabum Plum, a middle-school detective always decked out in a three-piece suit and fedora—styling himself after noir movies from the 1950s and ’60s—and proficient in every skill of investigation and observation. Though there aren’t too many crimes in his small neighborhood, an out-of-town classic film festival held during spring break offers a unique mystery for its attendees, along with a $1,000 prize and a Maltese Falcon trophy to whoever solves it. Icabum needs to claim the Falcon; he knows his mom could use the money, even if she won’t tell him why the phone and electricity have been cut off. But his father has sent a bus ticket for him to come and stay with him and his new family in Savannah during the break, along with instructions to “dress normal.” Icabum turns to his fellow “Gum Chews,” a team of close friends and fellow investigators, to help flim-flam his nosy bus-route chaperone, give his father the slip, and hot-foot it to the convention. Rowe’s boy detective is a wonderful protagonist: Icabum values knowledge and friendship, is anxious to share his interests, and willing to dress and act radically different from his classmates, despite any confrontation or criticism this draws. The book’s first-person narration employs a distinctly noir tone, even in moments that seem more soft-boiled than hard—the initially jarring conceit quickly becomes charming. The story is full of engaging trivia about film and history, and Rowe uses an impressive but never daunting vocabulary (just wait until young readers start using “ennui” and “phlegm” in their daily conversations), delivering a narrative with clear goals and just a little bit of danger…not enough to ever scare, but definitely enough to dial up the excitement.
A world-beater of a boy detective brings film noir’s legacy to a younger audience.Pub Date: Oct. 31, 2024
ISBN: 9798350972610
Page Count: 156
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Dav Pilkey & illustrated by Dav Pilkey ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 28, 2012
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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More In The Series
by Dav Pilkey ; illustrated by Dav Pilkey
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by Dav Pilkey ; illustrated by Dav Pilkey ; color by Jose Garibaldi & Wes Dzioba
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by Dav Pilkey ; illustrated by Dav Pilkey color by Jose Garibaldi & Wes Dzioba
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by Dav Pilkey ; illustrated by Dav Pilkey ; color by Jose Garibaldi & Wes Dzioba
by Millie Florence ; illustrated by Astrid Sheckels ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 7, 2025
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.
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In Florence’s middle-grade fantasy novel, a young girl’s heart is tested in the face of an evil, spreading Darkness.
Eleven-year-old Lydia, “freckle-cheeked and round-eyed, with hair the color of pine bark and fair skin,” is struggling with the knowledge that she has reached the age to apprentice as an herbalist. Lydia is reluctant to leave her beloved, magical Mulberry Glen and her cozy Housetree in the woods—she’ll miss Garder, the Glen’s respected philosopher; her fairy guardian Pit; her human friend Livy; and even the mischievous part-elf, part-imp, part-human twins Zale and Zamilla. But the twins go missing after hearing of a soul-sapping Darkness that has swallowed a forest and is creeping into minds and engulfing entire towns. They have secretly left to find a rare fruit that, it is said, will stop the Darkness if thrown into the heart of the mountain that rises out of the lethal forest. Lydia follows, determined to find the twins before they, too, fall victim to the Darkness. During her journey, accompanied by new friends, she gradually realizes that she herself has a dangerous role to play in the quest to stop the Darkness. In this well-crafted fantasy, Florence skillfully equates the physical manifestation of Darkness with the feelings of insecurity and powerlessness that Lydia first struggles with when thinking of leaving the Glen. Such negative thoughts grow more intrusive the closer she and her friends come to the Darkness—and to Lydia’s ultimate, powerfully rendered test of character, which leads to a satisfyingly realistic, not quite happily-ever-after ending. Highlights include a delightfully haunting, reality-shifting library and a deft sprinkling of Latin throughout the text; Pit’s pet name for Lydia is mea flosculus (“my little flower”). Fine-lined ink drawings introducing each chapter add a pleasing visual element to this well-grounded fairy tale.
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781956393095
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Waxwing Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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