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
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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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