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HOWARD WALLACE, P.I.

Name: HOWARD WALLACE, P.I.
Author: Casey Lyall
ISBN: 978-1-4549-1949-0

by Casey Lyall ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 6, 2016

Likely to see sequels; Howard and Ivy deserve them.

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Grantleyville Middle School lowlifes beware: shamus Howard Wallace is on the case!

Twelve-year-old Howard Wallace is obsessed with Sam Spade and other hard-boiled detectives, and he runs his own detective agency (brown bathrobe standing in for the trench coat) from his home and school offices. He solves cases and hands out bills, using his proceeds to buy stashes of his favorite gum and care for his beloved, ancient bike, Big Blue. When a new case involving a stolen student-council checkbook lands in his lap, Howard reluctantly takes on a junior partner, new girl Ivy Mason. (The two characters are likely white.) Almost immediately, the duo starts getting anonymous threats telling them to drop the case. Who’s behind the theft and threats? The rich, connected student-council president? Her BFF, who lost the election for treasurer to Howard’s client? The disgruntled faculty adviser? Or someone even more unexpected? Canadian author Lyall’s debut is a middle school mystery that offers a few laughs, believable characters, and enough realistic kid detecting to keep young PIs turning pages. Through Howard’s references to noir detective greats, readers in the target audience who have no reference points for such will begin to learn the tropes of the genre. Once it gets going, the mystery is engaging enough to carry them past bumps.

Likely to see sequels; Howard and Ivy deserve them. (Mystery. 8-11)

Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-4549-1949-0

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Sterling

Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S MYSTERY & THRILLER | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
GNOME IS WHERE YOUR HEART IS
by Casey Lyall

- BOOK REVIEW
A SPOONFUL OF FROGS
by Casey Lyall ; illustrated by Vera Brosgol

- BOOK REVIEW
SABOTAGE STAGE LEFT
by Casey Lyall

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THE FANTASTIC SECRET OF OWEN JESTER

by Barbara O’Connor ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 31, 2010

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"The short, sad life of Tooley Graham was over," doesn't sound like a happy conclusion but is pitch perfect in this short, simple and endearing middle-grade novel that follows on the heels of The Small Adeventure of Popeye and Elvis (2009). Owen Jester is focused on several things during his summer vacation: finding a way to keep his trapped "pet" bullfrog alive and happy, locating what fell off a train with a loud crash! one night and keeping annoying next-door neighbor Viola—who knows everything—out of their business as he schemes with his two best friends, Stumpy and Travis. The discovery of a sleek, red two-person submarine in the brush alongside the tracks changes everything. Can three young, girl-hating boys and a willing and very able—and tolerant—girl move a submarine to Graham Pond? If they manage that, will they ever be able to pilot it? In the heat of a languid Georgia summer vacation, in the dreams of irrepressible youth, anything is possible. O'Connor has spun a lovely read that perfectly captures the schemes and plans of school-age kids in the long days of summer. (Fiction. 8-11)

Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2010

ISBN: 978-0-374-36850-0

Page Count: 176

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: June 28, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2010

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ACTION & ADVENTURE FICTION | CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S MYSTERY & THRILLER

- BOOK REVIEW
THE SMALL ADVENTURE OF POPEYE AND ELVIS
by Barbara O’Connor

- BOOK REVIEW
GREETINGS FROM NOWHERE
by Barbara O’Connor

- BOOK REVIEW
HOW TO STEAL A DOG
by Barbara O’Connor

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TUCK EVERLASTING

by Natalie Babbitt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1975

However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...

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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.

However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the first week in August when this takes place to "the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning") help to justify the extravagant early assertion that had the secret about to be revealed been known at the time of the action, the very earth "would have trembled on its axis like a beetle on a pin." (Fantasy. 9-11)