A suspenseful mystery novel with a carefully and convincingly drawn protagonist.
An autistic girl solves mysterious codes as she and her friends try to retrieve magical artifacts.
Emma Avery anxiously enters seventh grade at a new school, Afton Academy. Her stepmom, Jennifer, expects that there she’ll receive “speech therapy and counseling and a bunch of other stuff,” and Emma finds Jennifer’s relentless positivity annoying. Popular classmate Nate Lin notices Emma’s code-breaking talents and invites her to join his group of friends, who call themselves the Codebreakers. At first, white-presenting Emma’s social anxiety takes over, but as she proves her abilities, her new friends reveal the secrets of Sablewood, a mysterious local 19th-century village. The racially diverse Codebreakers hope to find magical objects hidden in Sablewood by decoding carvings in the ruined village’s stones. Emma’s friendship instincts have been wrong before, and she’s unsure whether to trust them now. She sometimes imagines how easy life would be for “Other Emma,” one without autism, but as the storyline progresses, her interactions and internal monologues show her many strengths and contributions. Diagrams demonstrate how some ciphers work, which may encourage further exploration, and a bonus cipher for readers to solve adds to the fun. One subplot introduced at the beginning of the story disappears without resolution, but the main storyline progresses cohesively, leaving just enough suspenseful loose ends to pique readers’ interest for the next series entry.
A suspenseful mystery novel with a carefully and convincingly drawn protagonist. (Mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781324083559
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Norton Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
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
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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