An enjoyable frolic with a great message that kids won't even notice they're absorbing.
Which is worse: a shark or a 13-year-old bully?
Ana Wright is more worried about working with her archnemesis, Ashley, than she is about handling the sharks at the new Marine Adventure Zone in her family’s zoo. Ashley has always been beautiful, popular and mean, and now Ana fears Ashley is going to seek revenge for a trick Ana played on her a few weeks ago. But it turns out that Ashley is pretty nice and even helps Ana out with some wardrobe issues. Can Ana ever shake off the feeling that Ashley's mean side may be revealed at any moment? Add into the mix a pact over a first kiss plus her always-annoying twin brother, and it's no surprise Ana starts to stress. Keating maintains the same humorous, lightly soul-searching tone, perfect for a barely teenage girl, with which she infused Ana’s first outing, How to Outrun a Crocodile When Your Shoes Are Untied (2014). Ana and her friends explore the widening doorway of adolescence in a way that's both innocent and marked with fresh knowledge about desire and disaster in the realm of relationships. Occasionally, Ana's inner monologue leans too heavily on material she's previously explored, such as whether or not Kevin likes her, but the overall theme of living up to one’s own expectations makes for solid narrative bedrock.
An enjoyable frolic with a great message that kids won't even notice they're absorbing. (Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4022-9758-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
In this series debut, Maggie Sinclair tracks down a dognapper and solves a mystery about the noises in the walls of her Brooklyn brownstone apartment building. The 12-year-old heroine, who shares a middle name—Brooklyn—with her twin brother, Finn, is juggling two dogwalking jobs she’s keeping secret from her parents, and somehow she attracts the ire of the dogs’ former walker. Maggie tells her story in the first person—she’s self-possessed and likable, even when her clueless brother invites her ex–best friend, now something of an enemy, to their shared 12th birthday party. Maggie’s attention to details helps her to figure out why dogs seem to be disappearing and why there seem to be mice in the walls of her building, though astute readers will pick up on the solution to at least one mystery before Maggie solves it. There’s a brief nod to Nancy Drew, but the real tensions in this contemporary preteen story are more about friendship and boy crushes than skullduggery. Still, the setting is appealing, and Maggie is a smart and competent heroine whose personal life is just as interesting as—if not more than—her detective work. (Mystery. 10-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2010
ISBN: 967-1-59990-525-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2010
Eleven-year-old Griffin Bing is “the man with the plan.” If something needs doing, Griffin carefully plans a fix and his best friend Ben usually gets roped in as assistant. When the town council ignores his plan for a skate park on the grounds of the soon-to-be demolished Rockford House, Griffin plans a camp-out in the house. While there, he discovers a rare Babe Ruth baseball card. His family’s money worries are suddenly a thing of the past, until unscrupulous collectables dealer S. Wendell Palomino swindles him. Griffin and Ben plan to snatch the card back with a little help. Pet-lover Savannah whispers the blood-thirsty Doberman. Rock-climber “Pitch” takes care of scaling the house. Budding-actor Logan distracts the nosy neighbor. Computer-expert Melissa hacks Palomino’s e-mail and the house alarm. Little goes according to plan, but everything turns out all right in this improbable but fun romp by the prolific and always entertaining Korman. (Fiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-439-90344-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2008
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