More facile than fun.
Charlie “Numbers” Lewis and his Whiz Kids explore aviation history (and dabble in corporate espionage).
Sixth-grader Charlie, a white boy, and his four somewhat diverse friends are very smart in their fields of expertise. They had quite the adventure at Incredo Land (Bringing down the Mouse, 2014); now they’ve been asked by Anastasia Federov, a former student of Charlie’s MIT–professor dad’s, to enter a paper-airplane competition. They are to befriend Richard Caldwell, the reigning champ and son of former astronaut (and corporate sponsor of the contest) Buzz Caldwell, and to find out if said former astronaut stole moon rocks from the U.S. government. Of course, nothing turns out the way they expect. Richard’s a smart, gracious kid. Anastasia might have faked credentials to get the Whiz Kids into the contest…and faked a lot more than that. Can they figure out what’s going on and not come out looking like the bad guys? The Mezrichs follow Charlie’s debut with an entertaining-enough thriller dotted with history and science lessons. Though readers will likely give a pass to improbabilities in the story (underground, secret labs and daring escapes riding museum-piece aircraft), improbabilities in the lives of the characters (their parents let their 12-year-olds travel from Boston to D.C. unaccompanied, and another kid sets off fire alarms for fun in a crowded hotel ballroom without repercussions) will leave them scratching their heads and closing the book.
More facile than fun. (Adventure. 8-11)Pub Date: Nov. 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-4847-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
SEEN & HEARD
Certain to elicit both gales of giggles and winces of sympathy (not to mention recognition) from young readers.
First volume of a planned three, this edited version of an ongoing online serial records a middle-school everykid’s triumphs and (more often) tribulations through the course of a school year.
Largely through his own fault, mishaps seem to plague Greg at every turn, from the minor freak-outs of finding himself permanently seated in class between two pierced stoners and then being saddled with his mom for a substitute teacher, to being forced to wrestle in gym with a weird classmate who has invited him to view his “secret freckle.” Presented in a mix of legible “hand-lettered” text and lots of simple cartoon illustrations with the punch lines often in dialogue balloons, Greg’s escapades, unwavering self-interest and sardonic commentary are a hoot and a half.
Certain to elicit both gales of giggles and winces of sympathy (not to mention recognition) from young readers. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2007
ISBN: 0-8109-9313-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2007
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
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