This ambling tale takes too long to get going.
A skeptic finds herself caught up in paranormal shenanigans.
Bernard situates readers in Southern, swampy, alligator-populated Bohring, amid the debris of 11-year-old Karis “Kick” Winter’s explosion. Kick plans a career in STEM, like her “super scientist” mother, Dr. Georgia Winter, who leaves Kick with her admittedly fake-psychic and quite stylish mother, Grandma Missouri, at her home, the Hollows. Kick’s visit coincides with the 100-year occurrence of the town’s curse, in which “the children turned into monsters and took over the town.” Kick’s scientific mind dismisses the lore, which comes with a nursery rhyme, even as she lies about being a psychic to fit into her new school. This strategy backfires when one of the mean-girl bullies demands that she use that ability to remove the curse. Then Kick smells the “porta potty” odor and sees a “smear of glowing green” and “horrible figures,” and she wonders if science can so easily dismiss these supernatural phenomena…and, halfway through the book, readers will wonder if the plot will pick up or stay plodding along. When done well, Southern ease, as heard in its legendary drawl and tasted in its cuisine, slows the pace to an elegant, earthy perfection. Alas, here Bernard’s use of the Southern idiom just bogs her plot down. There are some secondary characters of color, but most of the cast presents white. Several of Kick’s experiments are appended.
This ambling tale takes too long to get going. (Paranormal adventure. 8-12)Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-368-02855-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Aug. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019
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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