May reassure readers with aging relatives facing Alzheimer’s.
A grandmother and granddaughter’s shared escapade bares unhappy truths.
Brainy, white, bespectacled Cricket Cohen, a Manhattan sixth-grader, thinks deep scientific thoughts. Her philanthropist parents don’t get her, nor she them. This isn’t Cricket’s only problem. While she revels in cosmic truths, she bends facts about her own life a lot. This alienates would-be friends and requires her to rewrite a mostly fabricated memoir. The person who appreciates Cricket most and to whom she doesn’t lie is her maternal grandmother, Dodo, a mischievous free spirit. Now living down the hall and attended by a paid helper, Dodo longs for independence and adventure. The opportunity arises when Cricket’s parents go out of town, leaving her with Dodo. The two take off, booking a posh Manhattan hotel room and dining and shopping in a pricey department store. Dramatic evidence of Dodo’s precarious mental state comes to the fore when store security holds her for shoplifting and alert the police, who take her and Cricket into protective custody. Alzheimer’s disease is gently explained, and the family concedes that help is needed. While Cricket and Dodo are sympathetic and well-portrayed, Cricket’s parents are stereotypes. Mrs. Cohen’s a self-absorbed, pushy workaholic; Mr. Cohen’s wishy-washy. The breezy, wink-wink depictions of NYC ethos become tiresome, though out-of-towners may appreciate some of the landmark references. The ending, Cricket’s poignant rewritten memoir, is realistic but hopeful.
May reassure readers with aging relatives facing Alzheimer’s. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-374-30041-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
The Baudelaire children—Violet, 14, Klaus, 12, and baby Sunny—are exceedingly ill-fated; Snicket extracts both humor and horror from their situation, as he gleefully puts them through one terrible ordeal after another. After receiving the news that their parents died in a fire, the three hapless orphans are delivered into the care of Count Olaf, who “is either a third cousin four times removed, or a fourth cousin three times removed.” The villainous Count Olaf is morally depraved and generally mean, and only takes in the downtrodden yet valiant children so that he can figure out a way to separate them from their considerable inheritance. The youngsters are able to escape his clutches at the end, but since this is the first installment in A Series of Unfortunate Events, there will be more ghastly doings. Written with old-fashioned flair, this fast-paced book is not for the squeamish: the Baudelaire children are truly sympathetic characters who encounter a multitude of distressing situations. Those who enjoy a little poison in their porridge will find it wicked good fun. (b&w illustrations, not seen) (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 30, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-440766-7
Page Count: 162
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1999
Like its predecessor, a satisfying, Incredibles-style mix of awesome exploits and common family issues.
Deprived of superpowers in the previous episode (Almost Super, 2014), can the Bailey and Johnson clans put aside their squabbles to tackle their common nemesis, the Joneses?
Determined to prove that they have the mettle to join their parents and relatives in fighting crime, 13-year-old Rafter Bailey, his little brother, Benny, and erstwhile rival Juanita Johnson (definitely the brains of the trio) kick off their own search for the Joneses’ secret hideout. Little do they suspect that those clever villains have planted a ringer in their very midst. Sabotage and other distractions ensue, until Juanita’s sudden disappearance sharpens not only the urgency of the search, but also Rafter’s guilt for being a poor friend. The kidnapping turns out to be a crucial mistake for the bad guys, however, as resourceful Juanita gets off a call for help that both brings the Baileys and Johnsons together for a collective rescue operation and, amid much breakage of glass and heroic feats of derring-do, foils the evil schemes of scenery-chewing archfiend October Jones. Rafter makes a likable narrator, emotionally open and determined to be both a good superhero and a good friend.
Like its predecessor, a satisfying, Incredibles-style mix of awesome exploits and common family issues. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-220958-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
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