by Cory Wheeler Mimms ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 18, 2013
A compelling story of one teenager, one trail, a few friends and many ghosts.
A sudden tragedy sends 14-year-old Eli Sutton into a challenging Appalachian Trail adventure in which he confronts both his limitations and his powers of endurance.
Eli always knew that someday he’d hike the A.T. all the way to Maine, but when a horrific accident proves to be beyond his coping strategies, that hike becomes a reality far sooner than he ever expected. The landscape and the solitude are comforting, but new discomforts and dangers do little to replace the grief he thought he could escape. He does gain solace from an old journal kept by his grandfather and passed down to Eli; the trials his ancestors endured, like losing their farm, allow Eli to glimpse a larger world of both pain and meaning. The friends he finds on the trail also help him see beyond his current morass. Debut novelist Mimms weds hiking know-how to the drama of grief with a steady touch and pitch-perfect tone. Journal entries from Eli’s grandfather’s time provide a pleasing contrast in structure, and Eli’s spooky musings on the Raven Mocker and U`tlun’ta add a taste of otherworldly flavor. Only the ending of the book feels too abrupt and coincidental to be well-earned.
A compelling story of one teenager, one trail, a few friends and many ghosts. (Adventure. 10-13)Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-9400520-0-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Craigmore Creations
Review Posted Online: Aug. 14, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2013
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by Dav Pilkey ; illustrated by Dav Pilkey ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 15, 2013
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride.
Zipping back and forth in time atop outsized robo–bell bottoms, mad inventor Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) legs his way to center stage in this slightly less-labored continuation of episode 9.
The action commences after a rambling recap and a warning not to laugh or smile on pain of being forced to read Sarah Plain and Tall. Pilkey first sends his peevish protagonist back a short while to save the Earth (destroyed in the previous episode), then on to various prehistoric eras in pursuit of George, Harold and the Captain. It’s all pretty much an excuse for many butt jokes, dashes of off-color humor (“Tippy pressed the button on his Freezy-Beam 4000, causing it to rise from the depths of his Robo-Pants”), a lengthy wordless comic and two tussles in “Flip-o-rama.” Still, the chase kicks off an ice age, the extinction of the dinosaurs and the Big Bang (here the Big “Ka-Bloosh!”). It ends with a harrowing glimpse of what George and Harold would become if they decided to go straight. The author also chucks in a poopy-doo-doo song with musical notation (credited to Albert P. Einstein) and plenty of ink-and-wash cartoon illustrations to crank up the ongoing frenzy.
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-17536-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
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by Lamar Giles ; illustrated by Dapo Adeola ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 2, 2019
This can’t be the last we ever hear of the Legendary Alston Boys of the purely surreal Logan County—imaginative,...
Can this really be the first time readers meet the Legendary Alston Boys of Logan County? Cousins and veteran sleuths Otto and Sheed Alston show us that we are the ones who are late to their greatness.
These two black boys are coming to terms with the end of their brave, heroic summer at Grandma’s, with a return to school just right around the corner. They’ve already got two keys to the city, but the rival Epic Ellisons—twin sisters Wiki and Leen—are steadily gaining celebrity across Logan County, Virginia, and have in hand their third key to the city. No way summer can end like this! These young people are powerful, courageous, experienced adventurers molded through their heroic commitment to discipline and deduction. They’ve got their shared, lifesaving maneuvers committed to memory (printed in a helpful appendix) and ready to save any day. Save the day they must, as a mysterious, bendy gentleman and an oversized, clingy platypus have been unleashed on the city of Fry, and all the residents and their belongings seem to be frozen in time and place. Will they be able to solve this one? With total mastery, Giles creates in Logan County an exuberant vortex of weirdness, where the commonplace sits cheek by jowl with the utterly fantastic, and populates it with memorable characters who more than live up to their setting.
This can’t be the last we ever hear of the Legendary Alston Boys of the purely surreal Logan County—imaginative, thrill-seeking readers, this is a series to look out for. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-46083-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Versify/HMH
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
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