A promising start to a weird new series.
Ada Goth solves a mystery.
Ada lives in Ghastly-Gorm Hall with her reclusive father, Lord Goth. Since her mother passed away, her father can barely stand to spend time with Ada, so she spends her days hanging about, keeping to herself and staying out of the servants’ ways. One night, the ghost of a mouse named Ishmael comes to visit Ada, and together they work to discover the truth behind strange happenings at Ghastly-Gorm Hall. Ada is supported by twisted and kooky characters, and the author delights in bending this odd world close to the breaking point. Riddell peppers the story with literary references older readers will chuckle at, but the jokes never come at the expense of the enjoyment of younger readers. The mystery is a bit flat: the sinister gamekeeper is clearly up to something, and the author never suggests otherwise. In compensation for this narrative bust, the characters do more than their part to make the book one worth reading. Future installments are welcome as long as they involve governess Lucy Borgia, pals Emily and William Cabbage, and the Attic Club. The illustrations complement the twisted world nicely. The characters (the humans all seem to be white) are all drawn with fine, squiggly lines and detailed with precision. A small, removable novella, Memoirs of a Mouse, is tucked into a pocket in the back cover.
A promising start to a weird new series. (Mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-230-75980-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Macmillan UK/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
It’s fine, but it doesn’t live up to its potential as a STEM-plus-caper adventure.
This thriller reads like Miss Congeniality meets Kingsman, starring Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and Anishinaabe-kwe water protector Autumn Peltier…kind of.
Puerto Rican–born, Brooklyn-raised Sara isn’t expecting much from her court-appointed lawyer—she has no reason to put faith in the system that put her in jail after she hacked into the city’s computers to expose her foster parents as abusive frauds. But with juvie her only other prospect, Sara takes a leap and agrees to a wild proposition: She’ll join Britain’s MI6 as a kid operative. When she arrives at the covert facility in Scotland, she meets the other kids the MI6 agent, a white Englishman affectionately called Mother, has taken in—all of them, like Sara, have highly developed skills in logic, puzzles, sneakiness, and other useful spy tactics. Mother has a mission for them; he’s taking them to Paris to a competition for youth environmental innovation, where their job is to perform just well enough to make it into the top 10 so they can protect the eccentric billionaire sponsor of the contest from an imminent threat. It’s a fun romp with timely but superficial things to say about environmental activism, though the recruitment process and messy organization stretches the imagination even with a hardy suspension of disbelief. For a spy story, it’s surprisingly interior focused rather than action packed. The cast is technically diverse in ethnic background, but this has next to no influence on the characters.
It’s fine, but it doesn’t live up to its potential as a STEM-plus-caper adventure. (Thriller. 8-12)Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-1491-4
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
A page-turner with striking characters and a satisfying puzzle at its heart.
A boy who visits a little free library gets more than he bargained for when he becomes a sleuth caught up in the middle of his town’s most enduring mystery.
Ever since a tragic fire destroyed the Martinville Library, the town has been left without a place to borrow books. That is, until a little free library suddenly pops up, guarded by a fluffy orange cat named Mortimer. Fifth grader Evan McClelland selects two books from its shelves. Inside them he finds puzzling clues that lead him to chase down the real story behind the library fire. The book is told from multiple perspectives, including those of Evan, Mortimer, and ghost librarian Al, who perished in the blaze and is responsible for the upkeep of the little free library. Evan’s tenacious and curious character is relatable. His relationship with likable best friend Rafe, a brave, kind boy with overprotective parents, is easily one of the most endearing parts of the story. The puzzle over the library fire, a secret involving Evan’s family, a popular writer’s connection to Martinville, and the supernatural elements are presented in ways that are just right for middle-grade readers. The pacing is strong, and the twists and turns are satisfying even if perceptive readers may catch hints of the ultimate truth along the way. Physical descriptions of the human characters are largely absent.
A page-turner with striking characters and a satisfying puzzle at its heart. (Mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2023
ISBN: 9781250838810
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
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