STEM-centric sleuthing, with cooperation and girl power getting brisk thematic boosts.
A potentially life-changing invitation to a science camp run by the world’s richest technocrat pitches 12-year-old English inventor Marie Trelawney into a heady whirl of science and danger.
Hardly has Marie—dubbed “Marie Curious” by her mum—arrived at the dazzlingly high-tech California campus of VanceCorp than hints begin dropping that all is not as it seems. For one thing, eccentric billionaire CEO Sterling Vance warns her of spies; for another, VanceCorp’s new OS update, about to be released worldwide, is oddly full of bugs and glitches. Worst of all, Marie’s precious notebook disappears, and the science projects she and her fellow attendees are working on are sabotaged. Hooking up with three other girls who share complementary STEM skills—teamwork!—Marie observes and reasons her way past clues pointing to multiple suspects on the way to a technologically simplistic but suitably dramatic climax. Two subsequent entries in this British import that are releasing simultaneously likewise feature some contrivance on the way to their denouements but also generous measures of deduction, advanced tech, and help from Marie’s squad. In Marie Curious, Girl Genius: Rescues a Rock Star, Marie attends a tech show in London where she discovers the star attraction has fallen victim to a presumed kidnapping. She again saves the world from an evil scheme in Marie Curious, Girl Genius: Undercover Gamer, which takes place during a Beijing VR gaming tournament. Cover art depicts Marie with brown skin and long black hair; her mum uses an electric wheelchair. Short chapters and ample white space contribute to the accessibility of these titles.
STEM-centric sleuthing, with cooperation and girl power getting brisk thematic boosts. (Science mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: March 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-68464-352-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
Chalk up another treat for Korman fans.
Barney was legendary for appalling acts of canine depravity until his recent death; two kids—Zarabeth, his (one) mourner, and Keenan, her at-first-skeptical new friend—investigate his possible murder.
Keenan misses his cosmopolitan life in Shanghai, where his mom and stepdad teach at an international school. Recovering from tuberculosis at his dad’s house on tiny Centerlight Island, divided between the U.S. and Canada, is beyond boring until he meets Zarabeth, with Barney’s well-behaved (but sadly disdained) replacement and colorful tales of famous Prohibition-era gangsters attracted to the quiet island’s largely unguarded international border; Tommy-Gun Ferguson, who built her family’s house, might have hidden his gold bullion on the island. When Keenan, now well, proves popular at his new island school, Zarabeth feels isolated. Centrelight’s few Canadian kids must attend mainland schools via ferry. Not incidentally, the island’s more-numerous American kids resent contrarian Zarabeth’s stubborn advocacy for anything-but-lamented Barney. Now snubbed by Zarabeth, Keenan looks into Barney’s death to appease her—and finds her suspicions well founded. Like the island’s two spellings, Zarabeth’s cross-border observations wryly assert Canadian cultural identity. She and Keenan, both presumed white, alternate narration and are good company. Vivid secondary characters commit spontaneous acts of hilarious mayhem—the unscheduled school-lockdown drill is one standout—though Barney’s extreme depredations (like destroying a Porsche and a house porch in one go) occasionally strain credulity. Readers need to buy such pivotal plot points.
Chalk up another treat for Korman fans. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Dec. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-279886-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019
A slowly unfurling delight.
A missing painting, a floating girl, and a mustachioed man: a lonely almost-12-year-old vows to figure it all out.
Middle school has been terrible for Rami Ahmed, and now a painting has been stolen from the Penelope L. Brooks Museum, where his mother works as the cleaning crew supervisor. Only the cleaning crew, Ed the security guard, and Rami himself were in the building on the day of the painting’s disappearance. As the theft draws unprecedented interest in the small, largely overlooked museum, the pressure of suspicion starts to grow. When a mysterious girl appears to Rami in the museum—and he recognizes her as the girl who’s portrayed in the stolen painting—he’s certain that she holds the key to its whereabouts. After Rami joins forces with Indian American classmate Veda, an aspiring sleuth, he finds himself in increasingly unexpected situations. The mystery drives this exquisitely paced story that unfolds in short chapters that readers will quickly consume. The characters, though, are the beating heart of this tender, quiet tale. From Rami, the only child of a now-single immigrant mother from Lebanon, to the museum director, who “had that accent that most rich people do…fancy and well educated,” to Agatha, the sun-seeking turtle from the garden by the Penelope who observes, learns, and wants to give joy—each character is drawn with texture, depth, and warmth. Rockefeller’s evocative illustrations enhance the text.
A slowly unfurling delight. (Mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9780062956705
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
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