Still ensconced at Mountain View Inn in Cucaracha, California, Cleary's endearing little talking mouse with the motorcycle finds himself the cause of trouble at the inn. First, his nighttime cycling sprees have drawn several envious little relatives to the inn's lobby, where they clamor for turns to ride and call Ralph "greedy" for refusing; he in turn shocks them and himself by calling them "rotten little rodents." What's more, the droppings from all those mice have got Ralph's handyman friend old Matt in trouble with the management, And so to escape his relatives and save Matt's job, Ralph talks his friend Ryan Bramble, the son of the inn's new housekeeper, into taking him off to live at his school. Fortunately, Ryan's teacher is the sympathetic, enlightened sort—so that when Ralph is discovered in Ryan's pocket she turns the occasion into a class project on mice. During Ralph's week at school, his beloved motorcycle is broken during a fight between Ryan and surly classmate Brad—but Ralph is "speechless with joy" when Brad gives him a sports car in its place. In the end, lonely Ryan and equally lonely Brad have become friends ("because of me," Ralph reflects with satisfaction); Ralph is proud "because he had helped Miss K. educate her class"; and Ralph himself has learned enough from Miss K.'s classroom methods to manage his relatives' demands for rides in the new sports car. A little short, perhaps, on Cleary's under-the-skin empathy; but as usual the little things, down to Ralph's learning to say vroom-vroom-vroom, not pb-b-b, pb-b-b (the motorcycle noise), to start his car—and moorv (vroom backwards) to back it up, tune readers in to Ralph's experiences.
Pub Date: Aug. 11, 1982
ISBN: 0380709570
Page Count: 181
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 16, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1982
Chilling in the best ways.
When a young rabbit who’s struggling in school finds a helpful crayon, everything is suddenly perfect—until it isn’t.
Jasper is flunking everything except art and is desperate for help when he finds the crayon. “Purple. Pointy…perfect”—and alive. When Jasper watches TV instead of studying, he misspells every word on his spelling test, but the crayon seems to know the answers, and when he uses the crayon to write, he can spell them all. When he faces a math quiz after skipping his homework, the crayon aces it for him. Jasper is only a little creeped out until the crayon changes his art—the one area where Jasper excels—into something better. As guilt-ridden Jasper receives accolade after accolade for grades and work that aren’t his, the crayon becomes more and more possessive of Jasper’s attention and affection, and it is only when Jasper cannot take it anymore that he discovers just what he’s gotten himself into. Reynolds’ text might as well be a Rod Serling monologue for its perfectly paced foreboding and unsettling tension, both gentled by lightly ominous humor. Brown goes all in to match with a grayscale palette for everything but the purple crayon—a callback to black-and-white sci-fi thrillers as much as a visual cue for nascent horror readers. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Chilling in the best ways. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6588-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
PERSPECTIVES
A snappy mystery that’s full of heart.
A group of bright friends tackles the puzzle of their lives.
Elmwood, New Hampshire, 11-year-old Gina Sparks is small in stature but big on reporting ongoing dramas for the local newspaper with support from her journalist mom. When an unbelievable scoop comes her way, Gina must rely on her tightknit crew of sixth grade best friends whose initials happen to spell GEEK, a label they choose to proudly reclaim. She and science-minded prankster Elena Hernández, theater kid Edgar Feingarten, and driven math genius Kevin Robinson decide to get to the bottom of things when they learn that the Van Houten Toy & Game Company heir made elaborate plans to leave everything to the town of Elmwood before her death—but only if a member of the community could solve an intricate multistep puzzle. Gina hopes that deciphering the clues and finding the missing fortune will be just the thing to revitalize the down-on-its-luck town and bring the Elmwood Tribune back into the black, saving her mom’s job and Gina’s passion project. The GEEKs work together, using their individual talents and deductive reasoning skills to unravel the mystery. Infused with media literacy pointers, such as the difference between fact and opinion and reminders to avoid bias when reporting, the story encourages readers to think critically. Gina and Edgar read as White; Elena is cued as Latinx, and Kevin is implied Black.
A snappy mystery that’s full of heart. (Mystery. 9-13)Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-37793-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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