A fun and ambitious first entry in a fantasy series about tween investigators.
A quirky vampire detective springs into action when chaos ensues at the Royal Vampire Wedding in Bowman’s supernatural middle-grade mystery.
Twelve-year-old Ellie Spark is half human, half vampire and an aspiring detective; she got the nickname Scaredy Bat because she sometimes turns into a bat when she’s frightened. She’s thrilled when she learns that she’ll be able to attend the Royal Vampire Wedding that’s taking place at her middle school—the first place that allowed both human and vampire students. Human-vampire relations are tricky, and this is a momentous occasion; if the nuptials don’t go as planned, a new prince will ascend to the throne and curtail a number of vampire civil rights. After a mysterious force freezes nearly everyone at the wedding, it’s up to Ellie; her fanged best friend, Jessica; and their new human pal, Fez, to find the cause and rescue vampire-human relations before it’s too late. In doing so, Ellie must battle her arachnophobia. The story is straightforwardly written and cleanly paced, introducing new characters intermittently, injecting doses of humor, and providing Ellie with a simple but effective narrative arc. The discussion of marriage and citizenship rights for vampires is surprisingly timely and operates subtly in the background. The text is supplemented by Lisovaya’s full-color illustrations, which lack depth and finesse but contribute charm all the same; in them, Ellie, Jessica, and Fez are portrayed as White, and Tink, a major supporting character introduced in the novel’s second half, is depicted as Black. This book would do well on bookshelves alongside early chapter book series like David A. Adler’s Cam Jansen (1980)and Jack Chabert’s Eerie Elementary (2014).An appendix includes suspect-list worksheets, trivia, and discussion questions as well as facts about spiders.
A fun and ambitious first entry in a fantasy series about tween investigators.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-950341-31-3
Page Count: 115
Publisher: Code Pineapple
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Delightful fun for budding mystery fans.
Only children, rejoice! A cozy mystery just for you! (People with siblings will probably enjoy it too.)
Debut novelist Cornett introduces the One and Onlys, a trio of mystery-solving only kids: Gloria Longshanks “Shanks” Hill, Alexander “Peephole” Calloway, and narrator Paul (alas, no nickname) Marconi. The trio has a knack for finding and solving low-level mysteries, but they come up against a true head-scratcher when the yard of a resident of their small town is covered in rubber ducks overnight. Working ahead of Officer Portnoy, who’s a little on the slow side, can Paul, Shanks, and Peephole solve the mystery? Cornett has a lot of fun with this adventure, dropping additional side mysteries, a subplot about small businesses, big corporations, and economics, and a town’s love of bratwurst into the mix. Most importantly, he plays fair with the clues throughout, allowing astute readers to potentially solve the case ahead of the trio. The tone and mystery are perfect for younger readers who want to test their detective skills but are put off by anything scary or gory. The pacing would serve well for chapter-by-chapter read-alouds. If there are any quibbles, it’s the lack of diversity of the cast, as it defaults white. Diversity exists in small towns, and this one is crying out for more. Hopefully a sequel will introduce additional faces.
Delightful fun for budding mystery fans. (Mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-3003-6
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Funny delivery, but some jokes really miss the mark.
An animal ghost seeks closure after enduring aquatic atrocities.
In this sequel to The Incredibly Dead Pets of Rex Dexter (2020), sixth grader Rex is determined to once again use his ability to communicate with dead animals for the greater good. A ghost narwhal’s visit gives Rex his next opportunity in the form of the clue “bad water.” Rex enlists Darvish—his Pakistani American human best friend—and Drumstick—his “faithful (dead) chicken”—to help crack the case. But the mystery is only one of Rex’s many roadblocks. For starters, Sami Mulpepper hugged him at a dance, and now she’s his “accidental girlfriend.” Even worse, Darvish develops one of what Rex calls “Game Preoccupation Disorders” over role-playing game Monsters & Mayhem that may well threaten the pair’s friendship. Will Rex become “a Sherlock without a Watson,” or can the two make amends in time to solve the mystery? This second outing effectively carries the “ghost-mist” torch from its predecessor without feeling too much like a formulaic carbon copy. Spouting terms like plausible deniability and in flagrante delicto, Rex makes for a hilariously bombastic (if unlikable) first-person narrator. The over-the-top style is contagious, and black-and-white illustrations throughout add cartoony punchlines to various scenes. Unfortunately, scenes in which humor comes at the expense of those with less status are downright cringeworthy, as when Rex, who reads as White, riffs on the impossibility of his ever pronouncing Darvish’s surname or he plays dumb by staring into space and drooling.
Funny delivery, but some jokes really miss the mark. (Paranormal mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5523-5
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
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