A heroine to warm the heart and a mystery to chill the blood.
A young zombie enthusiast tries to bring about the apocalypse and uncovers a murder plot instead in Wyatt’s middle-grade debut.
Harriet the Spy meets Coraline in this horror romp starring almost-13-year-old Ernestine Montgomery. Intent on jump-starting the apocalypse and with a zombie survival guide already written, Ernestine, with the help of her white stepbrother Charleston, tries to raise the undead from a nearby cemetery. Plans are derailed a bit, however, with the attempted murder of their landlady, and the eccentric, “retired artists, both performing and otherwise” who share their apartment building are thrown under suspicion. Wyatt has created a bright, determined, and emotionally complex protagonist to join the illustrious roster of young mystery-solvers and monster-slayers: Ernestine barely blinks when tracking down a would-be homicidal maniac is added to her apocalyptic to-do list. Past trauma, a delicate mother-daughter relationship, and premeditated violence bring a balance of gravitas to the delightfully macabre narrative without slowing it down. Wyatt makes some awkward missteps in representation, overemphasizing the hair textures—and misbehavior—and skin tones of biracial Ernestine and her mother in comparison to brief eye- and hair-color descriptions for white characters such as Charleston. Despite this, the narrative will have readers asking for the sure-to-come sequel.
A heroine to warm the heart and a mystery to chill the blood. (Mystery. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-47158-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2018
Slick sleuthing punctuated by action on the boards and insights into differences that matter—and those that don’t.
Brothers, one neurodivergent, team up to shoot baskets and find a thief.
With the coach spit-bellowing at him to play better or get out, basketball tryouts are such a disaster for 11-year-old Green that he pelts out of the gym—becoming the chief suspect to everyone except his fiercely protective older brother, Cedar, when a valuable ring vanishes from the coach’s office. Used to being misunderstood, Green is less affected by the assumption of his guilt than Cedar, whose violent reactions risk his suspension. Switching narrative duties in alternating first-person chapters, the brothers join forces to search for clues to the real thief—amassing notes, eliminating possibilities (only with reluctance does Green discard Ringwraiths from his exhaustive list of possible perps), and, on the way to an ingenious denouement, discovering several schoolmates and grown-ups who, like Cedar, see Green as his own unique self, not just another “special needs” kid. In an author’s note, King writes that he based his title characters on family members, adding an element of conviction to his portrayals of Green as a smart, unathletic tween with a wry sense of humor and of Cedar’s attachment to him as founded in real affection, not just duty. Ultimately, the author finds positive qualities to accentuate in most of the rest of the cast too, ending on a tide of apologies and fence-mendings. Cedar and Green default to White.
Slick sleuthing punctuated by action on the boards and insights into differences that matter—and those that don’t. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-66590-261-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
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
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