A fast-moving, good-hearted ghost story.
Middle school is not for the faint of heart—especially when it’s haunted.
Tommy “Stix” Hart is nervous about starting middle school. Already prone to panic attacks after a violent run-in with a bully in third grade, he’s doing his best to get his bearings when a strange encounter with an older boy sets off a chain of events guaranteeing a sixth grade year that will be anything but normal. It turns out that Stix can see ghosts, and Gilbert Greene Middle School is haunted—but luckily not by “the scary, melt-your-face-off kind of ghosts.” Just three deceased kids, Jesse, Summer, and Dante, with unfinished business who need help crossing over. After mustering a great deal of courage, Stix agrees to help, and one by one, they work to resolve the past while navigating the ins and outs of present-day middle school. Music is a refuge for keen drummer Stix, who loves the Foo Fighters’ Taylor Hawkins (“the best drummer who ever lived”) and has a supportive drum teacher, Mr. Garcia, who urges him to play “with his heart and soul.” The character development is light, but the story moves quickly and will hold kids’ attention. The work introduces newer genre readers to the “ghosts with unfinished business” trope and is a fun, quick-paced read that’s enhanced by Vázquez’s charming grayscale illustrations. Stix, Jesse, and Summer are white presenting; Dante is cued Latine, and there’s broad racial diversity in the supporting cast.
A fast-moving, good-hearted ghost story. (Paranormal. 8-12)Pub Date: July 23, 2024
ISBN: 9781524884390
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
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
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and...
Catrina narrates the story of her mixed-race (Latino/white) family’s move from Southern California to Bahía de la Luna on the Northern California coast.
Dad has a new job, but it’s little sister Maya’s lungs that motivate the move: she has had cystic fibrosis since birth—a degenerative breathing condition. Despite her health, Maya loves adventure, even if her lungs suffer for it and even when Cat must follow to keep her safe. When Carlos, a tall, brown, and handsome teen Ghost Tour guide introduces the sisters to the Bahía ghosts—most of whom were Spanish-speaking Mexicans when alive—they fascinate Maya and she them, but the terrified Cat wants only to get herself and Maya back to safety. When the ghost adventure leads to Maya’s hospitalization, Cat blames both herself and Carlos, which makes seeing him at school difficult. As Cat awakens to the meaning of Halloween and Day of the Dead in this strange new home, she comes to understand the importance of the ghosts both to herself and to Maya. Telgemeier neatly balances enough issues that a lesser artist would split them into separate stories and delivers as much delight textually as visually. The backmatter includes snippets from Telgemeier’s sketchbook and a photo of her in Día makeup.
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and unable to put down this compelling tale. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-54061-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
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