This engaging tale will challenge middle-grade readers who love mysteries and a good fright.
This middle-grade debut novel stars a boy who inherits a house full of magical secrets from his uncle.
Enoch Wildwood, resident of the Gnomewood Home, has been murdered. This means that his sixth grader nephew, Danny Hallow, must drive with his guardians from Easton, Maryland, to Eddystone, New Hampshire, for the will reading. Danny’s father is deceased and his mother left, so his Keepers, Gloria Jean Grace, Silas Murray, and Ali Ramirez, protect him well. Often bullied at school, Danny’s one friend is the brown bat Max. Danny can communicate with Max. The boy also has a Just Know ability, a psychic talent that makes him sharper than most children. When Enoch’s will reveals that Danny is the sole inheritor of Gnomewood, the Keepers decide to settle in Eddystone despite the frigid weather and a rash of pet disappearances. Danny quickly makes two friends his age, Church McGee and Unwen Shaw. One day, they’re playing near a frozen creek when Unwen loses her shoe on the ice. As Danny tries to retrieve it, he sees a small robed creature snatch the shoe. Danny then falls through the ice only for Ezra Harker, a ragamuffin boy with a reputation for stealing, to rescue him. Ezra tells Danny the creature is a goblin, one of many terrorizing Eddystone. Is there a connection between Enoch’s death and these unsavory beings? Norton, who infuses his book with the small-town eeriness found in Stephen King’s work, delights in connecting the dots for well-read younger audiences. Danny’s family has an elaborate backstory, much of it explained by the Keepers, about clans with tremendous power who came through a portal. The source of Danny’s abilities—and their potentially dire consequences—rides the Chosen One trope while blending elements of fantasy, horror, and SF. But younger readers may be intimidated by the detailed plotting in this series starter. Scenes involving the children hunting goblins, away from the adults, work best because they advance the plot with suitable drama. Norton clearly wants to entertain a mixed-ages audience, yet the Keeper-heavy scenes slow the pace.
This engaging tale will challenge middle-grade readers who love mysteries and a good fright.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-71809-130-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This can’t be the last we ever hear of the Legendary Alston Boys of the purely surreal Logan County—imaginative,...
Can this really be the first time readers meet the Legendary Alston Boys of Logan County? Cousins and veteran sleuths Otto and Sheed Alston show us that we are the ones who are late to their greatness.
These two black boys are coming to terms with the end of their brave, heroic summer at Grandma’s, with a return to school just right around the corner. They’ve already got two keys to the city, but the rival Epic Ellisons—twin sisters Wiki and Leen—are steadily gaining celebrity across Logan County, Virginia, and have in hand their third key to the city. No way summer can end like this! These young people are powerful, courageous, experienced adventurers molded through their heroic commitment to discipline and deduction. They’ve got their shared, lifesaving maneuvers committed to memory (printed in a helpful appendix) and ready to save any day. Save the day they must, as a mysterious, bendy gentleman and an oversized, clingy platypus have been unleashed on the city of Fry, and all the residents and their belongings seem to be frozen in time and place. Will they be able to solve this one? With total mastery, Giles creates in Logan County an exuberant vortex of weirdness, where the commonplace sits cheek by jowl with the utterly fantastic, and populates it with memorable characters who more than live up to their setting.
This can’t be the last we ever hear of the Legendary Alston Boys of the purely surreal Logan County—imaginative, thrill-seeking readers, this is a series to look out for. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-46083-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Versify/HMH
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
A heartily satisfying string of entertaining near-catastrophes, replete with narrow squeaks and spectral howls.
Three young ghost trappers take on deadly wraiths and solve an old murder case in the bargain to kick off Stroud’s new post-Bartimaeus series.
Narrator Lucy Carlyle hopes to put her unusual sensitivity to supernatural sounds to good use by joining Lockwood & Co.—one of several firms that have risen to cope with the serious ghost Problem that has afflicted England in recent years. As its third member, she teams with glib, ambitious Anthony Lockwood and slovenly-but-capable scholar George Cubbins to entrap malign spirits for hire. The work is fraught with peril, not only because a ghost’s merest touch is generally fatal, but also, as it turns out, as none of the three is particularly good at careful planning and preparation. All are, however, resourceful and quick on their feet, which stands them in good stead when they inadvertently set fire to a house while discovering a murder victim’s desiccated corpse. It comes in handy again when they later rashly agree to clear Combe Carey Hall, renowned for centuries of sudden deaths and regarded as one of England’s most haunted manors. Despite being well-stocked with scream-worthy ghastlies, this lively opener makes a light alternative for readers who find the likes of Joseph Delaney’s Last Apprentice series too grim and creepy for comfort.
A heartily satisfying string of entertaining near-catastrophes, replete with narrow squeaks and spectral howls. (Ghost adventure. 11-13)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4231-6491-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
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