Adventure, heroics, and thoughtful characterization are stitched together in this charmer of a book.
Frankenstein’s monster is reconfigured in a variety of ways.
It’s been 327 days since the Professor left his bedroom, and Stitch has been patient all the while. He lives alongside the loquacious but much larger Henry; both of them are the cobbled-together creations of the mad genius. It isn’t until the Professor’s arrogant nephew Professor Hardacre arrives with his assistant, Alice, that Stitch and Henry realize their beloved creator is dead. And when Hardacre proves to have nefarious plans, Henry takes off into the wider world, with Stitch and Alice following in his wake. Along the way they encounter fearful villagers, a mysterious hooded figure, and a kindly blind man with an injured leg. Kenny invites readers to ponder what it means to be a monster; Alice (who has a slight hump), Stitch, and Henry are all dubbed monstrous at various points. Stitch’s wide-eyed trust in the essential goodness of his fellow human beings often contrasts with Alice’s knowing bitterness but proves the stronger feeling. As a creature new to the world, Stitch displays a striking sense of wonder, innocence, and compassion. Few people are beyond redemption in Kenny’s poignant tale, and his variegated “monsters” will win the hearts of readers (and even a couple of villagers as well). Characters are cued white.
Adventure, heroics, and thoughtful characterization are stitched together in this charmer of a book. (Paranormal. 7-11)Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9781536241983
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Walker US/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2025
Lighthearted spook with a heaping side of silliness—and hair.
Fifth graders get into a hairy situation.
After an unnamed narrator’s full-page warning, readers dive right into a Wolver Hollow classroom. Mr. Noffler recounts the town legend about how, every Oct. 19, residents don fake mustaches and lock their doors. As the story goes, the late Bockius Beauregard was vaporized in an “unfortunate black powder incident,” but, somehow, his “magnificent mustache” survived to haunt the town. Once a year, the spectral ’stache searches for an exposed upper lip to rest upon. Is it real or superstition? Students Parker and Lucas—sole members of the Midnight Owl Detective Agency—decide to take the case and solve the mustache mystery. When they find that the book of legends they need for their research has been checked out from the library, they recruit the borrower: goth classmate Samantha von Oppelstein. Will the three of them be enough to take on the mustache and resolve its ghostly, unfinished business? Whether through ridiculous plot points or over-the-top descriptions, the comedy keeps coming in this first title in McGee’s new Night Frights series. A generous font and spacing make this quick-paced, 13-chapter story appealing to newly confident readers. Skaffa’s grayscale cartoon spot (and occasional full-page) illustrations help set the tone and accentuate the action. Though neither race or skin color is described in the text, images show Lucas and Samantha as light-skinned and Parker as dark-skinned.
Lighthearted spook with a heaping side of silliness—and hair. (maps) (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-8089-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
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