A fun read for any sleuths-in-training.
Join Paloma Marquez as she solves the mystery of Frida Kahlo’s missing peacock ring.
Biracial Paloma Marquez is a 12-year-old half-Mexican, half-white girl from Kansas City, Kansas. Paloma possesses almost no memories of her deceased father but hopes to reconnect with her Mexican heritage during her first trip to his homeland. While staying in the Coyoacán neighborhood of Mexico City, Paloma explores Casa Azul, artist Frida Kahlo’s childhood home–turned-museum, and instantly becomes a fan of Frida’s artwork. Paloma is supposed to take Spanish classes and art history classes, but there’s a mystery unfolding in Casa Azul. Kahlo’s peacock ring is missing, and it is imperative that Paloma and her new friends, local siblings Gael and Lizzie, find it before it is too late. But Gael and Lizzie, who pose as Paloma’s Spanish tutors from the university, are not who they seem….Paloma is a fan of fictional teen supersleuth Lulu Pennywhistle, who inspires her to try to solve the mystery of the missing peacock ring. The mystery, while engaging, is not particularly intricate. Readers will have little trouble solving it before Paloma and her friends do, making it more an introduction to the genre than one for readers accustomed to it. Spanish is used throughout the text with translations following almost immediately.
A fun read for any sleuths-in-training. (author’s note) (Mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-338-15931-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
An engaging variation on a familiar theme.
Pippa is in over her head and head over heels in the second installment of the Pippa Park series.
Pippa, a working-class Korean American 12-year-old, lives with her adult sister, Mina, and Mina’s husband in Massachusetts; her mother returned to Korea due to visa issues. Pippa has settled into the private middle school she attends on a basketball scholarship. She is friendly with the Royals, the group of popular girls, most of whom are wealthy and White, but she isn’t quite one of them—yet. When the venue for the Royals’ Christmas party falls through, Pippa impulsively volunteers to host it. What the other girls don’t know is just how tiny Pippa’s apartment is and that her family can’t afford glitzy decorations or catering—even Christmas presents are outside their budget. Obstacles abound, one of the Royals seems to have it in for her, her best friends are drifting away from her, and she develops feelings for two different boys, one White and one Korean American. It’s too much, and Pippa makes one disastrous decision after another until it all comes to a head a few days before the party. Luckily Pippa learns some valuable lessons in friendship and teamwork just in time to make it a very merry Christmas after all. This is solid, classic middle-school drama fare that benefits from the interesting ways Pippa’s family background is developed.
An engaging variation on a familiar theme. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-944020-80-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Fabled Films
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022
A slowly unfurling delight.
A missing painting, a floating girl, and a mustachioed man: a lonely almost-12-year-old vows to figure it all out.
Middle school has been terrible for Rami Ahmed, and now a painting has been stolen from the Penelope L. Brooks Museum, where his mother works as the cleaning crew supervisor. Only the cleaning crew, Ed the security guard, and Rami himself were in the building on the day of the painting’s disappearance. As the theft draws unprecedented interest in the small, largely overlooked museum, the pressure of suspicion starts to grow. When a mysterious girl appears to Rami in the museum—and he recognizes her as the girl who’s portrayed in the stolen painting—he’s certain that she holds the key to its whereabouts. After Rami joins forces with Indian American classmate Veda, an aspiring sleuth, he finds himself in increasingly unexpected situations. The mystery drives this exquisitely paced story that unfolds in short chapters that readers will quickly consume. The characters, though, are the beating heart of this tender, quiet tale. From Rami, the only child of a now-single immigrant mother from Lebanon, to the museum director, who “had that accent that most rich people do…fancy and well educated,” to Agatha, the sun-seeking turtle from the garden by the Penelope who observes, learns, and wants to give joy—each character is drawn with texture, depth, and warmth. Rockefeller’s evocative illustrations enhance the text.
A slowly unfurling delight. (Mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9780062956705
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
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