A sweet and satisfying mystery.
When things start to go missing in Urchin Beach, including a precious town symbol, Amelia and her brothers and sisters are determined to find the thief and save an honored tradition.
The Dragonfly Day Festival is a beloved event for Amelia MacGuffin’s family and many others. People come from all over to their small Pacific Northwest town to swing the wooden staff, which has a dragonfly-shaped mark on it, believing that three twirls over their heads will bring good luck into their lives. After the staff is stolen just days before the big celebration, a series of ill-timed misfortunes befalls the area. Family life unfolds against this backdrop. Amelia, who is about to start sixth grade, sits at the awkward and sacred intersection between childhood and young adulthood. She’s responsible, quick-witted, and introspective, a likable main character. Her siblings Bridget and Colin have their own useful and unique personality traits, and Duncan and Emma, the twin toddlers, are adorable tag-alongs. When a lovable dog they name Doc comes into their lives, the kids do everything they can to convince their parents to keep him, a journey that includes surprises. The central whodunit buoys readers along, the answer delightfully being both unpredictable and obvious. Amelia and her family are White; there is ethnic diversity among her friends and other secondary characters. This is a well-imagined, absorbing world, the story original and inviting.
A sweet and satisfying mystery. (Mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781338818581
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and...
Catrina narrates the story of her mixed-race (Latino/white) family’s move from Southern California to Bahía de la Luna on the Northern California coast.
Dad has a new job, but it’s little sister Maya’s lungs that motivate the move: she has had cystic fibrosis since birth—a degenerative breathing condition. Despite her health, Maya loves adventure, even if her lungs suffer for it and even when Cat must follow to keep her safe. When Carlos, a tall, brown, and handsome teen Ghost Tour guide introduces the sisters to the Bahía ghosts—most of whom were Spanish-speaking Mexicans when alive—they fascinate Maya and she them, but the terrified Cat wants only to get herself and Maya back to safety. When the ghost adventure leads to Maya’s hospitalization, Cat blames both herself and Carlos, which makes seeing him at school difficult. As Cat awakens to the meaning of Halloween and Day of the Dead in this strange new home, she comes to understand the importance of the ghosts both to herself and to Maya. Telgemeier neatly balances enough issues that a lesser artist would split them into separate stories and delivers as much delight textually as visually. The backmatter includes snippets from Telgemeier’s sketchbook and a photo of her in Día makeup.
Telgemeier’s bold colors, superior visual storytelling, and unusual subject matter will keep readers emotionally engaged and unable to put down this compelling tale. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-54061-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
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