Natalie Babbitt's prose is as clean as her pen line, yet unexpectable: the Mammoth Mountains "were the only point of interest in a countryside that neither rolled nor dipped but lay as flat as if it had been knocked unconscious." One is taller, decidedly more clifflike, its crest shrouded in mist—and mystery—for on stormy, rainy nights "an undiscovered creature would lift its voice and moan. . ." This is Kneeknock Rise, at its foot the village of Instep, whose inhabitants thrive on their fearsome distinction and from the fair that annually brings the envious to eat and dance. . . and tremble at the voice of the Megrimum. So that when Egan, taunted by Cousin Ada, climbs as he's thought to do, dreamed of doing. . . and returns to tell the unforbidding tale, why—"He doesn't know what he's saying." Vagabond Uncle Ott, encountered at the top, knew, and put it into the rhyme of a cat playing mouse with a string: "He didn't thank me when/ I told him he was wrong./ It's possible—just possible—/ He knew it all along." The wind-up takes longer than it need though the Megrimum restored is an exquisite bit of megrimummery. As, earlier, is Uncle Anson's kneeknock-bird clock 'killed' by disagreeable Sweetheart the cat because "the Megrimum wants them to." But Megrimum or not, Kneeknock Rise has Uncle Ott's left-behind dog Annabelle, "old and fat and beautiful" and not the coward Ada calls her. Like The Search. . . delicious.
Pub Date: May 29, 1970
ISBN: 0312370091
Page Count: 148
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1970
A snappy mystery that’s full of heart.
A group of bright friends tackles the puzzle of their lives.
Elmwood, New Hampshire, 11-year-old Gina Sparks is small in stature but big on reporting ongoing dramas for the local newspaper with support from her journalist mom. When an unbelievable scoop comes her way, Gina must rely on her tightknit crew of sixth grade best friends whose initials happen to spell GEEK, a label they choose to proudly reclaim. She and science-minded prankster Elena Hernández, theater kid Edgar Feingarten, and driven math genius Kevin Robinson decide to get to the bottom of things when they learn that the Van Houten Toy & Game Company heir made elaborate plans to leave everything to the town of Elmwood before her death—but only if a member of the community could solve an intricate multistep puzzle. Gina hopes that deciphering the clues and finding the missing fortune will be just the thing to revitalize the down-on-its-luck town and bring the Elmwood Tribune back into the black, saving her mom’s job and Gina’s passion project. The GEEKs work together, using their individual talents and deductive reasoning skills to unravel the mystery. Infused with media literacy pointers, such as the difference between fact and opinion and reminders to avoid bias when reporting, the story encourages readers to think critically. Gina and Edgar read as White; Elena is cued as Latinx, and Kevin is implied Black.
A snappy mystery that’s full of heart. (Mystery. 9-13)Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-37793-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
A candid and powerful reckoning of history.
Summer is off to a terrible start for 12-year old African-American Candice Miller.
Six months after her parents’ divorce, Candice and her mother leave Atlanta to spend the summer in Lambert, South Carolina, at her grandmother’s old house. When her grandmother Abigail passed two years ago, in 2015, Candice and her mother struggled to move on. Now, without any friends, a computer, cellphone, or her grandmother, Candice suffers immense loneliness and boredom. When she starts rummaging through the attic and stumbles upon a box of her grandmother’s belongings, she discovers an old letter that details a mysterious fortune buried in Lambert and that asks Abigail to find the treasure. After Candice befriends the shy, bookish African-American kid next door, 11-year-old Brandon Jones, the pair set off investigating the clues. Each new revelation uncovers a long history of racism and tension in the small town and how one family threatened the black/white status quo. Johnson’s latest novel holds racism firmly in the light. Candice and Brandon discover the joys and terrors of the reality of being African-American in the 1950s. Without sugarcoating facts or dousing it in post-racial varnish, the narrative lets the children absorb and reflect on their shared history. The town of Lambert brims with intrigue, keeping readers entranced until the very last page.
A candid and powerful reckoning of history. (Historical mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-545-94617-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Levine/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2018
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