Friendship, perseverance, suspense, action—plus a little Chinese culture thrown in—this tale has something for most readers.
Eleven-year-old Sienna embarks on an adventure with her imaginary spaniel friend, Rufus, to find her missing mother and discovers much more than she bargained for.
Sienna’s art-historian mom, Kate, disappears while doing research in China. Now that Sienna and her dad are moving from London to Shanghai, she is determined to find her. It’s no easy task. Sienna speaks limited Mandarin-Chinese, and Ling, the live-in housekeeper her dad has hired, is mean and controlling, and she doesn’t let Sienna out of her sight. Even Rufus rarely visits her now. One day, while her dad is away on business, Sienna catches Ling doing something sinister and realizes she’s likely involved in Kate’s disappearance. Sienna manages to escape with only the clothes on her back and a tin box filled with her mother’s letters. Luckily, Sienna meets Feng, a young Chinese boy who knew Kate while she was working at the Temple of Fragrant Mountain of Pingdingshan in Henan province. Feng believes his brother and Kate are being held by the same crooks and wants to help. They decide to take the night train to Pingdingshan. As a disguise, the white girl wraps her blonde hair in a scarf and wears concealing clothing. Along the way, Sienna’s posse grows, the allies each accompanied by their own imaginary pet friends. Their dialogue adds some comic relief, while the suspense plot provides a modicum of tension. Sienna’s outsider view gives readers unfamiliar with Chinese culture some elementary introduction.
Friendship, perseverance, suspense, action—plus a little Chinese culture thrown in—this tale has something for most readers. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: July 25, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-338-11855-1
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Chicken House/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: April 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2017
A moving tale of baseball, magic, and former rivals who come together to solve a problem.
A middle schooler struggles to adjust after moving to an idyllic Massachusetts town.
Trish Das is at a crossroads. Not only is the 12-year-old unhappy that her family has moved yet again due to her mother’s cardiology career, she also has to try out for a new baseball team. The fact that one of her new teammates is a former archrival further complicates matters. Math prodigy Ben Messina went head-to-head against fellow math whiz Trish at last spring’s Math Puzzlers Championship. When Trish emerged victorious, Ben was stunned. The two get closer when the team’s mysterious pregame snacks start making everyone play better while also causing magical side effects during games. Equally surprising are the cryptic puzzle booklets Trish and Ben receive in the mail that lead them to even more wins. But as the puzzles get harder to solve, the risk of failing to do so increases. Alternating between Trish’s and Ben’s perspectives, LaRocca’s novel—a companion to 2019’s Midsummer’s Mayhem—is a Much Ado About Nothing homage that explores parental expectations, complicated friendships, and teamwork. The protagonists’ love of problem-solving shines through, and the puzzles themselves are clearly explained. As a third-generation Indian American, Trish also has moving conversations about the circumstances that led her grandparents to emigrate and how those decisions still impact their lives. Ben is implied White. Final illustrations not seen.
A moving tale of baseball, magic, and former rivals who come together to solve a problem. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: June 15, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4998-1101-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Yellow Jacket
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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Will satisfy fans but could be better.
Young CIA agent-in-training Benjamin Ripley switches sides—or is he just going undercover?—in this graphic version of the third Spy School caper.
Sticking to the plot of the 2015 original, this episode sees the talented math whiz recruited by nefarious organization SPYDER after being (unjustly, he fumes) kicked out of the CIA’s academy. While training in a hidden school for evildoers with other prospective villains, including Ashley Sparks, a gushy former competitive gymnast with a fondness for portmanteau words (sweet + awesome = swawesome), Ben gets wind of a dastardly scheme to make billions on government construction projects. Hot if inept pursuit by both rival espionage agencies takes Ben from a secret underground command center to the top of the Statue of Liberty. But while the action has a rapid flow in the art (Sarkar is good at portraying fights, high-speed chases, and explosions), several characters are drawn with generic features and such a limited range of expressions that even with help from the cast gallery, it’s hard to tell them apart easily. Still, along with coming through in the suspenseful climax—thanks to clever deductions and quick thinking—by the end, Ben has also achieved a long-sought breakthrough with Erica Hale (code name “Ice Queen”), a superbly omnicompetent schoolmate who has his heart as well as his back. The cast largely presents white.
Will satisfy fans but could be better. (Graphic thriller. 8-12)Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781665931946
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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