A spooky, fantastical, and inspiring addition to the series.
In the third installment of the Secrets of the Sky series, Kiya and Kinjal return to the Kingdom Beyond to solve a ghostly problem.
Mere weeks after their last trip there, the 10-year-old twins, who are preparing for bhoot chathurdoshi, a Bengali holiday, find their pakkhiraj horse friends calling for their aid once again. Bhoot, or ghosts of all sorts, have been frightening the denizens of the Kingdom Beyond, the Sky Kingdom, and Demon Land. When the twins witness the pakkhiraj reacting aggressively toward these ghostly invaders, Kinjal, especially, feels empathy for the bhoot. The judgment and anger with which others treat them remind him of the ways some people in New Jersey react to his own and other immigrant families. Putting their heads together, Kiya and Kinjal realize that the groves of trees where the bhoot lived have been cut down, displacing them as well as various animal species. The brother and sister need to find the culprit in order to restore the bhoot to their homes. DasGupta once again tackles important social and environmental issues while lifting the mood of the story with lighthearted jokes and funny sibling banter. This fantasy will delight readers. Tang’s whimsical and imaginative spot art highlights the action-packed magical world. The author’s note expands on the Bengali cultural elements and folktales that inspired the work and encourages readers to learn more about environmental issues.
A spooky, fantastical, and inspiring addition to the series. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781338766776
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Not the most satisfying wrap-up, but it’s always good to spend time in the world of this series.
Beloved gorilla Ivan becomes a father to rambunctious twins in this finale to a quartet that began with 2012’s Newbery Award–winning The One and Only Ivan.
Life hasn’t always been easy for silverback gorilla Ivan, who’s spent most of his life being mistreated in captivity. Now he’s living in a wildlife sanctuary, but he still gets to see his two best friends. Young elephant Ruby lives in the grassy habitat next door, and former stray dog Bob has a home with one of the zookeepers. All three were rescued from the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade. Ivan’s expanded world includes fellow gorilla Kinyani—the two are about to become parents, and Ivan is revisiting the traumas of his past in light of what he wants the twins to know. When the subject inevitably comes up, Applegate’s trust and respect for readers is evident. She doesn’t shy away from hard truths as Ivan wrestles with the fact that poachers killed his family. Readers will need the context provided by knowledge of the earlier books to feel the full emotional impact of this story. The rushed ending unfortunately falls flat, detracting from the central message that a complex life can still contain hope. Final art not seen.
Not the most satisfying wrap-up, but it’s always good to spend time in the world of this series. (gorilla games, glossary, author’s note) (Verse fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9780063221123
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
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