Crisis averted, at the end, Edgar is left looking ahead with fresh confidence to seventh grade. Happily, a planned sequel...
With understandable difficulty, a sixth-grader with a mighty secret tries to earn acceptance from both his human schoolmates and his undead family.
Motivated by the sheer challenge of it all, Edgar is resolutely bucking the scorn and (historically justified) fear of his immortal clan to attend middle school and even hang out with human friends. Along with steering clear of garlic and crosses (though not sunlight, thanks to Sun-B-Gone potion concocted by his chemist great-grandmother, Morticia LaBelle von Dead), this means not responding to the schoolwide campaign of vicious harassment that vegan classmate Gertie is orchestrating after getting a gander at his blood-and–raw-meat lunches. But when Edgar does forget himself for a moment and flashes his fangs—suddenly he’s cool! As is her custom, Moss lays out Edgar’s diary entries in a legible “hand-printed” type, and she intersperses small line drawings of the characters with labels or side comments. She also provides Edgar with a truly ingenious ploy that both takes the wind out of Gertie’s sails and, in deference to the urgent demands of his horrified family, quashes the rumors of his vampiredom.
Crisis averted, at the end, Edgar is left looking ahead with fresh confidence to seventh grade. Happily, a planned sequel will allow readers to follow him there. (recipe for “Chocolate Blood Pudding”) (Light fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: April 21, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-939547-05-7
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Creston
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A didactic blueprint disguised as a supernatural treasure map.
A girl who delights in the macabre harnesses her inherited supernatural ability.
It’s not just her stark white hair that makes 11-year-old Zee Puckett stand out in nowheresville Knobb’s Ferry. She’s a storyteller, a Mary Shelley fangirl, and is being raised by her 21-year-old high school dropout sister while their father looks for work upstate (cue the wayward glances from the affluent demography). Don’t pity her, because Zee doesn’t acquiesce to snobbery, bullying, or pretty much anything that confronts her. But a dog with bleeding eyes in a cemetery gives her pause—momentarily—because the beast is just the tip of the wicked that has this way come to town. Time to get some help from ghosts. The creepy supernatural current continues throughout, intermingled with very real forays into bullying (Zee won’t stand for it or for the notion that good girls need to act nice), body positivity, socio-economic status and social hierarchy, and mental health. This debut from a promising writer involves a navigation of caste systems, self-esteem, and villainy that exists in an interesting world with intriguing characters, but they receive a flat, two-dimensional treatment that ultimately makes the book feel like one is learning a ho-hum lesson in morality. Zee is presumably White (as is her rich-girl nemesis–cum-comrade, Nellie). Her best friend, Elijah, is cued as Black. Warning: this just might spur frenzied requests for Frankenstein.
A didactic blueprint disguised as a supernatural treasure map. (Supernatural. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-304460-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
A chilling debut—like the Seeker, a tale that doesn’t let you go.
Justin and his friends play their last game of hide-and-seek at their friend Zee’s not-so-welcome–home party.
Zee had gone missing one week after Justin’s mother passed away just one year ago, and the party is celebrating his return. But the emaciated Zee is acting strangely, mumbling rhymes about a Seeker that will take them all. Shortly after the party, one by one, Justin’s other friends begin to disappear. It doesn’t take long for the remaining members of the crew to figure out that Zee’s strange behavior may be connected to the disappearances. Justin, Nia, and Lyric set out on a trail of clues and possible suspects, hoping to find their missing peers. No sooner do the details of the mystery begin to come to light than Justin, the last of the group, is unwillingly transported into the realm of Nowhere. In this parallel universe, the Seeker keeps children hostage, feeding off of their fears. This dark nail-biter, set in a small Tennessee town and featuring a largely African American cast (Lyric is the only white kid), weaves a creepy spin on a childhood game that quickly slips into a Stephen King–esque tale of horror. Can the children trapped in Nowhere gather as allies to evade the Seeker and get home?
A chilling debut—like the Seeker, a tale that doesn’t let you go. (Horror. 10-12)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-58362-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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