Readers will be more than satisfied with this pedal-to-the-metal Arizona adventure.
In this debut middle-grade novel, a girl and her best friend become entangled in a mystery that involves abandoned mine shafts and a top-secret government project.
Thirteen-year-old Lanie Speros has only been living in the Phoenix area for a few months. Yet she already knows her house, built in the 1950s, is not only unique, but hiding more than a few secrets as well: “Seeming to have pushed itself up out of the rocky hillside, the house had broad, flat roofs with long wall segments made of jagged stone. It straddled a red rock formation on the hillside, and some of the giant boulders behind the dining room formed the back walls of the house.” Then Lanie and her family—along with her best friend, engineering whiz Hudson Newman—discover a tunnel under their abode that seems to have been made out of the same material as the house. They begin to realize that an enigmatic mining company, long defunct, may be connected to a massive, self-sustaining subterranean colony supposedly built during the beginning of the Cold War. The narrative’s humorous, middle school tone is spot-on for its intended audience (“Her ragged hat was decidedly dork-tastic”), and Contes’ main characters are all deeply and insightfully portrayed. Lanie’s passion for and knowledge of automobiles, coupled with a combination of social awkwardness and courage, immediately make her identifiable and endearing. The pacing is relentless, making for a page-turning read, and is complemented by some fantastical settings, most of which are far underground. But this is not a novel without flaws. Some sequences, while action-packed, seem unnecessarily drawn out, and the conclusion isn’t as forceful as it could have been. But this may be attributed to the fact that the author is setting the table for a sequel.
Readers will be more than satisfied with this pedal-to-the-metal Arizona adventure.Pub Date: April 14, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-66783-279-1
Page Count: 390
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A validating and breathtaking next chapter of a Mother Goose favorite.
Humpty Dumpty, classically portrayed as an egg, recounts what happened after he fell off the wall in Santat’s latest.
An avid ornithophile, Humpty had loved being atop a high wall to be close to the birds, but after his fall and reassembly by the king’s men, high places—even his lofted bed—become intolerable. As he puts it, “There were some parts that couldn’t be healed with bandages and glue.” Although fear bars Humpty from many of his passions, it is the birds he misses the most, and he painstakingly builds (after several papercut-punctuated attempts) a beautiful paper plane to fly among them. But when the plane lands on the very wall Humpty has so doggedly been avoiding, he faces the choice of continuing to follow his fear or to break free of it, which he does, going from cracked egg to powerful flight in a sequence of stunning spreads. Santat applies his considerable talent for intertwining visual and textual, whimsy and gravity to his consideration of trauma and the oft-overlooked importance of self-determined recovery. While this newest addition to Santat’s successes will inevitably (and deservedly) be lauded, younger readers may not notice the de-emphasis of an equally important part of recovery: that it is not compulsory—it is OK not to be OK.
A validating and breathtaking next chapter of a Mother Goose favorite. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62672-682-6
Page Count: 45
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
