A savvy young gumshoe brightens this lighthearted mystery with charm and panache.
A tween uses her newly acquired ability to see ghosts to try to solve a 20-year-old murder in this debut middle-grade paranormal novel.
Kate Sablowsky doesn’t stay in a new city for long. Her mom, celebrity TV anchor Maria Silver, has a job that moves the family of two from place to place. Ravendale, Iowa, is the latest one, and Kate quickly settles in—except for her new recurring nightmare of being stuck inside a burning building. This dream/vision soon makes sense in an unexpected way once Kate realizes she shares her deceased grandmother’s psychic gift. The 12-year-old tween sees and even speaks with a ghost at school, a girl about the same age. This spirit died in a fire back in 1995 but, thinking it was no accident, asks Kate to investigate and unmask a killer. Resourceful Kate digs into the old case only to make someone nervous, as an anonymous note warns her to stop snooping. But despite the danger, she’s determined to uncover what happened that day two decades ago. Alexander delivers an entertaining series opener. The story boasts several chilling moments, all revolving around Kate’s potential proximity to a murderer. The paranormal bits center on Kate’s gentle, never-scary phantom friend, as this taut, relatively short book doesn’t overpopulate its cast. The story is likewise generally positive, especially when the tenderhearted and respectful young hero basks in her feel-good relationship with her doting mother. Kate’s daily check-in texts are a riot. She lets her mom know that she made it to school with “Followed a trail of candy to an old witch’s house” (Maria’s response: “YUM! Bring me some!”). While the mystery generates some suspects, Kate mostly works with “lackluster proof.” But this amateur sleuth doesn’t even have a driver’s license yet, and readers will surely relish watching her hone her skills in the sequel.
A savvy young gumshoe brightens this lighthearted mystery with charm and panache.Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781957656076
Page Count: 178
Publisher: Monarch Educational Services, L.L.C.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Halloween is used merely as a backdrop; better holiday titles for young readers are available.
A ghost learns to appreciate his differences.
The little ghost protagonist of this title is unusual. He’s a quilt, not a lightweight sheet like his parents and friends. He dislikes being different despite his mom’s reassurance that his ancestors also had unconventional appearances. Halloween makes the little ghost happy, though. He decides to watch trick-or-treaters by draping over a porch chair—but lands on a porch rail instead. A mom accompanying her daughter picks him up, wraps him around her chilly daughter, and brings him home with them! The family likes his looks and comforting warmth, and the little ghost immediately feels better about himself. As soon as he’s able to, he flies out through the chimney and muses happily that this adventure happened only due to his being a quilt. This odd but gently told story conveys the importance of self-respect and acceptance of one’s uniqueness. The delivery of this positive message has something of a heavy-handed feel and is rushed besides. It also isn’t entirely logical: The protagonist could have been a different type of covering; a blanket, for instance, might have enjoyed an identical experience. The soft, pleasing illustrations’ palette of tans, grays, white, black, some touches of color, and, occasionally, white text against black backgrounds suggest isolation, such as the ghost feels about himself. Most humans, including the trick-or-treating mom and daughter, have beige skin. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-16.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 66.2% of actual size.)
Halloween is used merely as a backdrop; better holiday titles for young readers are available. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7352-6447-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this...
Sentenced to a brutal juvenile detention camp for a crime he didn't commit, a wimpy teenager turns four generations of bad family luck around in this sunburnt tale of courage, obsession, and buried treasure from Sachar (Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger, 1995, etc.).
Driven mad by the murder of her black beau, a schoolteacher turns on the once-friendly, verdant town of Green Lake, Texas, becomes feared bandit Kissin' Kate Barlow, and dies, laughing, without revealing where she buried her stash. A century of rainless years later, lake and town are memories—but, with the involuntary help of gangs of juvenile offenders, the last descendant of the last residents is still digging. Enter Stanley Yelnats IV, great-grandson of one of Kissin' Kate's victims and the latest to fall to the family curse of being in the wrong place at the wrong time; under the direction of The Warden, a woman with rattlesnake venom polish on her long nails, Stanley and each of his fellow inmates dig a hole a day in the rock-hard lake bed. Weeks of punishing labor later, Stanley digs up a clue, but is canny enough to conceal the information of which hole it came from. Through flashbacks, Sachar weaves a complex net of hidden relationships and well-timed revelations as he puts his slightly larger-than-life characters under a sun so punishing that readers will be reaching for water bottles.
Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this rugged, engrossing adventure. (Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 978-0-374-33265-5
Page Count: 233
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2000
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