To his glee and joy, Matt the robber chief has a child: "a robber's daughter," and the next robber chieftain. It would be Lindgren who'd put it into Matt's wild head to have wanted a girl all along, and who'd make Ronia a fit, free-spirited, dauntless robber's daughter—just a little skeptical when she learns what robbers do. But worse is to come: Matt's archrival Borka has moved with his band into the unused half of Matt's Fort, on the other side of Hell's Gap, and Borka has also got himself a child: a son, Birk. Once Birk and Ronia have made contact—first, leaping back and forth across the gap; then, saving each other's life—it will of course be Romeo and Juliet. The rivalry between the two robber bands heats up, Matt all the more enraged because he can't figure out how to eject Borka from the fort. And when he captures Birk by chance, intending to imprison him until Borka leaves, Ronia vaults the Sap. . . and, in defecting, breaks Matt's heart. Ronia and Birk flee to Bear's Cave for the summer—an idyllic, laughing summer. But, come autumn, Ronia's all-knowing mother Lovis seeks her out, and then Matt himself invites her back—with Birk, if must be. The two unregenerate old robbers, Matt and Borka, will fight hand-to-hand and join up. But their offspring and heirs, without peaching, have another trade in mind. Ronia as the darling of the robber's band is a delight, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs crossed with The Beggar's Opera; and her relationship with Birk, if lyrical/pastoral, is also realistically touchy (and never mawkish). You can see exactly where this is headed, but you do want it to get there.
Pub Date: April 1, 1983
ISBN: 0140317201
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1983
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As Captain Awesome would say, this kid is “MI-TEE!” (Fiction. 5-8)
The town of Sunnyview got a little bit safer when 8-year-old Eugene McGillicudy moved in.
Just like his comic-book mentor, Super Dude, Eugene, aka Captain Awesome, is on a one-man mission is to save the world from supervillains, like the nefarious “Queen Stinkypants from Planet Baby.” Just as Eugene suspected, plenty of new supervillains await him at Sunnyview Elementary. Are Meredith Mooney and the mind-reading Ms. Beasley secretly working together to try and force Eugene to reveal his secret identity? Will Principal Brick Foot succeed in throwing Captain Awesome into the “Dungeon of Detention?” Fortunately, Eugene isn’t forced to go it alone. Charlie Thomas Jones, fellow comic-book lover and Super Dude fan, stands ready and willing to help. When the class hamster goes missing, Captain Awesome must don his cape and, with the help of his new best friend, ride to the rescue. Kirby’s funny and engaging third-person narration and O’Connor’s hilarious illustrations make the book easily accessible and enormously appealing, particularly to readers who have recently graduated to chapter books. But it is the quirky, mischievous Eugene that really makes this book special. His energy and humor are contagious, and his dogged commitment to his superhero alter ego is enough to make anyone a believer.
As Captain Awesome would say, this kid is “MI-TEE!” (Fiction. 5-8)Pub Date: April 3, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-4090-6
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
Atmospheric but at times frustratingly flat.
A recent transplant wrestles with her seaside town’s complicated and ghostly history.
Twelve-year-old Mallory Denton has moved from Chicago to a tiny New England town. Eastport, Massachusetts, is a popular tourist destination, relying on its long and spooky history to keep its economy thriving. Its attractions include Mallory’s parents’ creepily themed restaurant that abuts a cemetery. Sweet Molly’s is Eastport’s most famous story, commemorated as the chief attraction in an annual parade. The legend tells of the time Molly Flanders McMulligan Marshall lost her twin brother, Liam, at sea when the townspeople pressured him to go out in his fishing boat even as a dangerous storm approached. After Mallory begins to see Molly in visions and nightmares, she must find a way to break Molly’s curse on the town before the vengeful ghost can exact her furious otherworldly revenge on the town that monetizes and celebrates her trauma. In tense, fast-paced chapters, Currie concocts a chilling setting replete with haunting spectral scares set in a town with an accessible but intriguingly complicated history. However, the thrills ultimately fizzle, as much is told rather than shown and pivotal plot points are revealed too soon and resolved too quickly and tidily. While some scenes are chillingly rendered, they lose their panache when juxtaposed against moments of cloying predictability. Most characters read as White.
Atmospheric but at times frustratingly flat. (Horror. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-72823-654-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Sourcebooks Young Readers
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
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