A fun, thoughtful page-turner about exorcising the expectations of others to achieve self-acceptance.
A 12-year-old confronts doubts about her Jewish identity to defeat the evil spirit she accidentally unleashes on her cousin.
Ruby yearns to be the favorite of Grandma Yvette, her paternal grandmother, but she drops matzah balls down the stairs and enjoys science more than cooking. Because Ruby’s mom is Catholic, Grandma Yvette prefers sharing Jewish traditions with Ruby’s overachieving cousin Sarah, who has two Jewish parents. For her part, Sarah is annoyingly eager to please. While this favoritism doesn’t read as harshly as the overt antisemitism Ruby encounters from her maternal grandparents, it’s all hard for Ruby, who, as a patrilineal Jew, painfully longs for acceptance. Resentful of seemingly perfect Sarah, Ruby picks a fight that winds up with them accidentally opening the forbidden box in Grandma Yvette’s basement that contains a dybbuk, releasing a rebellious streak in Sarah. When Sarah acts out—eating a nonkosher cheeseburger and attempting a dangerous crime—Ruby realizes Sarah might be possessed by the dybbuk. Since only a pious Jew can dispel one, Ruby pushes through questions of faith in her quest to save her cousin. This exciting story sensitively explores questions of identity and belonging in a Jewish context. Ruby is Ashkenazi Jewish and White. Her Hebrew school includes Jewish students of color, and a biracial Chinese Jewish friend helps Ruby reframe her struggles with identity.
A fun, thoughtful page-turner about exorcising the expectations of others to achieve self-acceptance. (Paranormal. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-24513-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Supernatural mystery meets generational drama with hopeful endings for all.
Eleven-year-old Frank must solve a supernatural mystery to save his new home.
As fifth grade comes to an end, Frank Fernández is looking forward to finally staying put in Alabama for a second year, as promised, after a childhood spent following his parents’ home renovation work all across the country. Frequent relocation has made Frank wary of forming friendships or making plans, but his hopes for more stability are temporarily dashed when his parents announce plans to renovate a lighthouse in the Florida Keys, near where his mother grew up and his father’s home country of Cuba. Papi promises this will be their last move, though: The lighthouse will be theirs. But from their first day on Spectacle Key, things seem to go wrong: Tensions rise between his parents, and Frank’s hopes of a forever home are under threat from seemingly supernatural forces. In order to put down roots, Frank and new ghostly friend Connie, a White girl with freckles, must discover what secrets the island is hiding, uncovering Frank’s own family roots along the way. Frank is a fan of horror—he names his new Great Dane puppy Mary Shelley. But though there is some mild peril to be found, rather than a ghostly thriller, this is an appealing, lightly spooky family drama with valuable lessons for those who would hide from a difficult past instead of confronting and healing generational trauma.
Supernatural mystery meets generational drama with hopeful endings for all. (Supernatural. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-313481-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
Funny delivery, but some jokes really miss the mark.
An animal ghost seeks closure after enduring aquatic atrocities.
In this sequel to The Incredibly Dead Pets of Rex Dexter (2020), sixth grader Rex is determined to once again use his ability to communicate with dead animals for the greater good. A ghost narwhal’s visit gives Rex his next opportunity in the form of the clue “bad water.” Rex enlists Darvish—his Pakistani American human best friend—and Drumstick—his “faithful (dead) chicken”—to help crack the case. But the mystery is only one of Rex’s many roadblocks. For starters, Sami Mulpepper hugged him at a dance, and now she’s his “accidental girlfriend.” Even worse, Darvish develops one of what Rex calls “Game Preoccupation Disorders” over role-playing game Monsters & Mayhem that may well threaten the pair’s friendship. Will Rex become “a Sherlock without a Watson,” or can the two make amends in time to solve the mystery? This second outing effectively carries the “ghost-mist” torch from its predecessor without feeling too much like a formulaic carbon copy. Spouting terms like plausible deniability and in flagrante delicto, Rex makes for a hilariously bombastic (if unlikable) first-person narrator. The over-the-top style is contagious, and black-and-white illustrations throughout add cartoony punchlines to various scenes. Unfortunately, scenes in which humor comes at the expense of those with less status are downright cringeworthy, as when Rex, who reads as White, riffs on the impossibility of his ever pronouncing Darvish’s surname or he plays dumb by staring into space and drooling.
Funny delivery, but some jokes really miss the mark. (Paranormal mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5523-5
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
