Beauvais’ narrative zips breezily along and gets to the end with several moments of laugh-out-loud cleverness—and that’s...
Young Sesame Seade returns for a second round of detective work around and about the colleges of Cambridge University (Sleuth on Skates, 2014), this time aided by friends Toby and Gemma.
As Sesame’s classmate Gemma points out, though the irrepressible Sesame has billions of connections in her brain, so does everyone else—and Sesame’s rejoinder is yes, but few use them “to save the galaxy as regularly as I do.” Oddities abound. A mysterious thief is stealing gargoyles from the rooftop of Gonville & Caius College. An influx of mice comes through the window of Sesame’s room, and Peter Mortimer, Sesame’s large and aggressive cat, has suddenly become sleepy and limp. And Jeremy, Sesame’s older friend, a university student and ally, has a girlfriend. Beauvais’ voice for her young gumshoe is wisecracking and clever, conferring on Sesame moments of sleuthing prowess as well as discomfort. The several threads of the current mystery are whirled and knotted together briskly with the inclusion of pharmaceutical experiments, a marsupial, hidden treasure, rooftop capers, and a bit of perfidy on the parts of both a visiting student and Sesame’s mother. The pleasure here, as with many mysteries, is not so much with the plotting as with the interactions among the characters.
Beauvais’ narrative zips breezily along and gets to the end with several moments of laugh-out-loud cleverness—and that’s enough to grab readers. (Mystery. 9-12)Pub Date: May 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3205-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Fade to black and cue the applause!
From Selznick’s ever-generative mind comes a uniquely inventive story told in text, sequential art and period photographs and film.
Orphaned Hugo survives secretly in a Parisian train station (circa 1930). Obsessed with reconstructing a broken automaton, Hugo is convinced that it will write a message from his father that will save his life. Caught stealing small mechanical repair parts from the station’s toy shop, Hugo’s life intersects with the elderly shop owner and his goddaughter, Isabelle. The children are drawn together in solving the linked mysteries of the automaton and the identity of the artist, illusionist and pioneer filmmaker, Georges Méliès, long believed dead. Discovering that Isabelle’s godfather is Méliès, the two resurrect his films, his reputation and assure Hugo’s future. Opening with cinematic immediacy, a series of drawings immerses readers in Hugo’s mysterious world. Exquisitely chosen art sequences are sometimes stopped moments, sometimes moments of intense action and emotion. The book, an homage to early filmmakers as dreammakers, is elegantly designed to resemble the flickering experience of silent film melodramas.
Fade to black and cue the applause! (notes, film credits) (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: March 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-439-81378-6
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2007
SEEN & HEARD
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