Mitigating the slow buildup is the rousing climax, complete with icky creatures and spooky thrills.
When strange things happen at Clio’s new babysitting gig, her friends are ready to help in this sequel to The Shadow Hand (2018).
Clio and her friends have just closed the portal to the Nightmare Realm, but their adventures aren’t over yet. Clio starts babysitting for the Lee family, who just moved into the old Plunkett mansion. Creepy things happen the first night, and it gets stranger every time she goes. She discusses the phenomena with her friends, who try to convince her that nothing’s wrong until the evidence is undeniable. Luckily, a boy from school named Ethan just happens to show up at Clio’s aunt’s shop with a flier about his services, which include speaking with ghosts. They are skeptical, but Clio decides to get his help to find out who is haunting the mansion and what they want. In an intense séance, they encounter the ghost and help her find peace. The plot moves slowly through the first half of the book, but the steady buildup of bizarre incidents combines with the characters’ interesting enough personalities to keep most readers going. The characters’ diverse ethnic backgrounds are casually mentioned: Clio is black with natural hair, and her aunt, Kawanna, has dreadlocks; Maggie and Ethan are both white; Rebecca is Chinese-American; Tanya, who’s probably Latinx, has brown skin; and the Lees are Korean-American.
Mitigating the slow buildup is the rousing climax, complete with icky creatures and spooky thrills. (Paranormal adventure. 8-12)Pub Date: Jan. 29, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-15699-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Imprint
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
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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