As a stand-alone work, less than satisfying.
Bert, the cat Mellie adopted in series opener Rise of ZomBert (2020), may not be a zombie…but she’s sure he’s special.
Former stray Bert has put on weight, and his fur’s filled in in the month that fourth grader Mellie has been taking care of him. With him, she hopes to win the Best Pet Contest at the Lambert Harvest Festival (sponsored by omnipresent YummCo) so she can pay her parents back for Bert’s vet bill. Her friend Danny’s (kind of) helping with Bert’s training while filming the rough-looking feline for a trilogy of ZomBert movies on social media. Bert has his own plan: to rescue all of his former test-subject companions from YummCo’s labs. Meanwhile, the Big Boss and lab techs Kari and Greg scheme to get Bert (or Y-91, as they call him) back into the lab for more tests. Whose plans will succeed? Perspectives alternate chapter by chapter among Mellie (related in the first person) and Bert (in a third-person cat voice) and the Yumms (third-person bad guy), and the story moves at a nice clip. However, it’s less spooky and mysterious than the first installment and has a truncated feel; it’s definitely a middle chapter in a longer work, leaving little resolved. As seen in the illustrations, Mellie’s family is interracial (she and her mom have brown skin and textured hair, and her dad and younger siblings present White); her friends are racially diverse. Entertaining enough, but young readers might want to wait until the final volume is out before picking up the first.
As a stand-alone work, less than satisfying. (Science fiction. 6-10)Pub Date: July 13, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0107-9
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
Fiber artists beware! Unnerving artistry and reality TV mix and meld in this fantastic cautionary tale.
Obsession claims an unlikely victim when a young mole gives absolutely everything for a chance at glitz and glory.
Nine-year-old Winona Mole is passionate about crocheting. Her favorite television program is an Is It Cake?–like show called Yarn Is Everything!, in which contestants create realistic replicas of objects through stitch alone. After a trip to a woolen arts museum, Winona sees the mysterious Spirit Hook, rumored to bestow powers “upon those willing to pay the price.” Later, Winona finds a seeming replica of that same crochet hook in her bag. Suddenly, her skills accelerate fantastically. Yet when she gets a chance to compete on Yarn Is Everything!, what starts as a passion turns into something darker. Reynolds walks that thin line between kid-appropriate and chilling with an aplomb worthy of his Twilight Zone influences. Winona’s descent into unhealthy fixation is matched by Brown’s telltale yarn fragments, trailing eerily from objects that should not be yarn-based. Crafters may find it odd that Reynolds opted for crocheting, not the more common knitting, as Winona’s métier. Even so, this lends the usual homey arts an effective creepiness, even as the increasing ridiculousness of the crocheted objects makes it sublimely silly as well.
Fiber artists beware! Unnerving artistry and reality TV mix and meld in this fantastic cautionary tale. (Chapter book. 6-9)Pub Date: July 14, 2026
ISBN: 9781665961141
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2026
Lighthearted spook with a heaping side of silliness—and hair.
Fifth graders get into a hairy situation.
After an unnamed narrator’s full-page warning, readers dive right into a Wolver Hollow classroom. Mr. Noffler recounts the town legend about how, every Oct. 19, residents don fake mustaches and lock their doors. As the story goes, the late Bockius Beauregard was vaporized in an “unfortunate black powder incident,” but, somehow, his “magnificent mustache” survived to haunt the town. Once a year, the spectral ’stache searches for an exposed upper lip to rest upon. Is it real or superstition? Students Parker and Lucas—sole members of the Midnight Owl Detective Agency—decide to take the case and solve the mustache mystery. When they find that the book of legends they need for their research has been checked out from the library, they recruit the borrower: goth classmate Samantha von Oppelstein. Will the three of them be enough to take on the mustache and resolve its ghostly, unfinished business? Whether through ridiculous plot points or over-the-top descriptions, the comedy keeps coming in this first title in McGee’s new Night Frights series. A generous font and spacing make this quick-paced, 13-chapter story appealing to newly confident readers. Skaffa’s grayscale cartoon spot (and occasional full-page) illustrations help set the tone and accentuate the action. Though neither race or skin color is described in the text, images show Lucas and Samantha as light-skinned and Parker as dark-skinned.
Lighthearted spook with a heaping side of silliness—and hair. (maps) (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-8089-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
