Enjoyable brainteaser with a period flavor.
In this charming mystery/adventure mashup set in 1870, the boy Sherlock Holmes and two equally fictional friends, Irene Adler and Arsène Lupin, solve a puzzle involving a dead burglar and a stolen necklace.
Twelve-year-old Irene, far too adventurous and wild for a young lady of her station, is vacationing in the seaside resort of Saint-Malo with her stiff, disapproving mother and the family butler, Mr. Horatio Nelson. Despite his proper demeanor, Mr. Nelson is perceptive, unpredictable and surprisingly fond of his young charge. Irene, who narrates the story, immediately takes to Sherlock and Arsène—the three, although neatly differentiated, are well-matched in terms of determination, imagination and intelligence—and the story kicks into gear when they find a dead body washed up on the beach. The rest of this fast-paced, old-fashioned puzzler concerns their investigation: Who is this person, was his death murder or suicide, and is his demise connected in any way with the burglary of Lady Martigny’s diamond necklace and the so-called Rooftop Thief? Although there’s suspense, jeopardy and fisticuffs, the tone of this ingenious tale is coolly stimulating—it does a particularly deft job of explaining to young readers the importance of each revelation and how it fits into the larger picture—and will engage on an intellectual rather than an emotional level.
Enjoyable brainteaser with a period flavor. (Fiction. 8-13)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-62370-040-9
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Capstone Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
Full of puzzles to think about, puns to groan at and references to children’s book titles, this solid, tightly plotted read...
When a lock-in becomes a reality game, 12-year-old Kyle Keeley and his friends use library resources to find their way out of Alexandriaville’s new public library.
The author of numerous mysteries for children and adults turns his hand to a puzzle adventure with great success. Starting with the premise that billionaire game-maker Luigi Lemoncello has donated a fortune to building a library in a town that went without for 12 years, Grabenstein cleverly uses the tools of board and video games—hints and tricks and escape hatches—to enhance this intricate and suspenseful story. Twelve 12-year-old winners of an essay contest get to be the first to see the new facility and, as a bonus, to play his new escape game. Lemoncello’s gratitude to the library of his childhood extends to providing a helpful holographic image of his 1968 librarian, but his modern version also includes changing video screens, touch-screen computers in the reading desks and an Electronic Learning Center as well as floor-to-ceiling bookshelves stretching up three stories. Although the characters, from gamer Kyle to schemer Charles Chiltington, are lightly developed, the benefits of pooling strengths to work together are clear.
Full of puzzles to think about, puns to groan at and references to children’s book titles, this solid, tightly plotted read is a winner for readers and game-players alike. (Mystery. 9-13)Pub Date: June 25, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-375-87089-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: April 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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