Young sleuths become best friends as they defeat scoundrels and save seniors in this page-turning mystery.
In western Newfoundland, two 11-year-olds must catch a thief before the permanent closure of a retirement community—and Benny’s own home.
Benny, a white-presenting boy with Down syndrome, lives in Starflower by the Sea, the retirement home his mum runs. Benny’s mosaic Down syndrome is entirely asymptomatic except for some physical differences; he’s never had any health, speech, or cognitive disabilities. Nonetheless, he’s been in special ed classes since he started school—until enough people recognized his above-average grades. Now, both thrilled and terrified, he’s about to begin his first day ever in a mainstream classroom. Benny just needs to make some friends…among kids who’ve ignored or bullied him since he was tiny. Amazingly, the new girl, brown-skinned Salma from Seattle, seems to actually like him. Salma, whose mother is from Newfoundland and implied white and whose father is from Tunisia, is a true-crime aficionado, and she’s invaluable when Benny starts investigating the inexplicable thefts plaguing the retirement home. Though the story drags at first, with extensive scene setting, once the pace picks up, the increasingly high-stakes mystery is gripping. As Benny and Salma rush to find a criminal who might leave the much-beloved seniors of Starflower homeless, they still have time to learn myriad moral lessons as they confront bigotry, bullying, and fighting.
Young sleuths become best friends as they defeat scoundrels and save seniors in this page-turning mystery. (Newfoundland sayings, author’s note) (Mystery. 9-12)Pub Date: April 15, 2025
ISBN: 9781665937696
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: yesterday
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Medically, both squicky and hopeful; emotionally, unbelievably squeaky-clean.
A 12-year-old copes with a brain tumor.
Maddie likes potatoes and fake mustaches. Kids at school are nice (except one whom readers will see instantly is a bully); soon they’ll get to perform Shakespeare scenes in a unit they’ve all been looking forward to. But recent dysfunctions in Maddie’s arm and leg mean, stunningly, that she has a brain tumor. She has two surgeries, the first successful, the second taking place after the book’s end, leaving readers hanging. The tumor’s not malignant, but it—or the surgeries—could cause sight loss, personality change, or death. The descriptions of surgery aren’t for the faint of heart. The authors—parents of a real-life Maddie who really had a brain tumor—imbue fictional Maddie’s first-person narration with quirky turns of phrase (“For the love of potatoes!”) and whimsy (she imagines her medical battles as epic fantasy fights and pretends MRI stands for Mustard Rat from Indiana or Mustaches Rock Importantly), but they also portray her as a model sick kid. She’s frightened but never acts out, snaps, or resists. Her most frequent commentary about the tumor, having her skull opened, and the possibility of death is “Boo” or “Super boo.” She even shoulders the bully’s redemption. Maddie and most characters are white; one cringe-inducing hallucinatory surgery dream involves “chanting island natives” and a “witch doctor lady.”
Medically, both squicky and hopeful; emotionally, unbelievably squeaky-clean. (authors’ note, discussion questions) (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62972-330-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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