A heartfelt ghost story with a promising setup, although the highs and lows work at cross purposes.
After being killed by a falling coconut, 12-year-old Finn finds himself in a spectral boarding school, where he joins other young ghosts yearning to revisit their families.
Virnig seems undecided as to whether to let her tale’s farcical elements take charge over its more poignant themes, and the sudden mood swings can be disorienting. Still, there’s plenty to snicker over at Phantom Academy, a “School for Underage Ghosts,” from gross but obligatory meals of ogre boogers and brown mush that “smells like rancid fish sautéed in dog poop” to animated wall paintings of a mysterious lady with a bushy mustache and a farting dragon (with a realistic rotten egg smell). From the moment he arrives, Finn, who’s cued white, sharply misses his beloved family. So, while learning the rules of ghostiness, often the hard way (yes, ghosts poop; no, they can’t walk through walls), he undertakes a determined search for a rumored portal back to the Land of the Living. In the end, Finn has second thoughts after interactions with a wise teacher suggest that his return might do more harm than good. But, considering how the author opens a floodgate for potential sequels by strewing this volume with tantalizing mysteries and exciting possibilities for ghostly explorations of both the spirit and earthly worlds, Finn’s future looks anything but dim.
A heartfelt ghost story with a promising setup, although the highs and lows work at cross purposes. (Supernatural. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9781665980364
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
Slick sleuthing punctuated by action on the boards and insights into differences that matter—and those that don’t.
Brothers, one neurodivergent, team up to shoot baskets and find a thief.
With the coach spit-bellowing at him to play better or get out, basketball tryouts are such a disaster for 11-year-old Green that he pelts out of the gym—becoming the chief suspect to everyone except his fiercely protective older brother, Cedar, when a valuable ring vanishes from the coach’s office. Used to being misunderstood, Green is less affected by the assumption of his guilt than Cedar, whose violent reactions risk his suspension. Switching narrative duties in alternating first-person chapters, the brothers join forces to search for clues to the real thief—amassing notes, eliminating possibilities (only with reluctance does Green discard Ringwraiths from his exhaustive list of possible perps), and, on the way to an ingenious denouement, discovering several schoolmates and grown-ups who, like Cedar, see Green as his own unique self, not just another “special needs” kid. In an author’s note, King writes that he based his title characters on family members, adding an element of conviction to his portrayals of Green as a smart, unathletic tween with a wry sense of humor and of Cedar’s attachment to him as founded in real affection, not just duty. Ultimately, the author finds positive qualities to accentuate in most of the rest of the cast too, ending on a tide of apologies and fence-mendings. Cedar and Green default to White.
Slick sleuthing punctuated by action on the boards and insights into differences that matter—and those that don’t. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-66590-261-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A promising fiction debut.
Family secrets, an unsolved bank robbery, summer on a lake, a treasure island and a first romance are the ingredients for this inviting middle-grade mystery.
Unhappy with his new life and new stepfather in Southern California, 13-year-old Trav runs away to the small town in Minnesota where his dad grew up and his grandmother lives. He quickly learns why his mother won’t talk about his father, who died before he was born. Suspected of having robbed a local bank, the man disappeared in a storm, his boat washed up on an island in the lake. Everyone figures Trav knows where the money is, a theory confirmed when some of the burgled money turns up in local stores after his arrival. Trav manages to convince neighbor kid Kenny and his hot cousin Iz of his innocence, and together, they try to figure out where the loot might have been stashed and who has sent Trav a threatening note. Careful plotting and end-of-chapter cliffhangers add to the suspense. The first-person narration suggests that Trav’s imagination has been fed by too much television, but the imagined threats become frighteningly real as the story progresses. Trav’s voice is believable, Bullard’s Minnesota setting full of convincing detail, and the boy’s hesitant romantic efforts add a pleasant embellishment.
A promising fiction debut. (Mystery. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-544-02900-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
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