Nevertheless, an action-packed tale with guns and boat chases that will appeal to reluctant readers
“What happens on the water stays on the water,” is the attitude in this fishing community on the fictional New England community of Fog Island.
Things are not going well for 12-year-old Eddie Atwell and his family. Poachers have stolen roughly 1,000 pounds of lobsters from the Atwell’s “car” (the mostly submerged, enclosed pen used to hold lobsters in seawater), and Eddie’s dad is on the mainland having surgery. All the action takes place within 24 hours, with each chapter heading counting down the minutes. At 4:05 in the morning, Eddie sneaks away from his sister Laurie to go fishing on Greenhead Point. At 5:01, he stumbles upon the stolen lobsters and learns Laurie’s boyfriend, Jake, is one of the poachers. At 5:40, Eddie meets 13-year-old Briggs Fairfield, a geeky rich kid who escaped from the nearby sailing camp because he is being bullied by Marty, one of the counselors—who also happens to be the ringleader of the thieves. By 9:45 that evening, the chase is on. The story is relies a touch too heavily on character and regional stereotypes, while some of the situations seem far-fetched.
Nevertheless, an action-packed tale with guns and boat chases that will appeal to reluctant readers . (Adventure. 10-14)Pub Date: July 19, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-59643-585-8
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2011
Serena Shaw, a spirited middle-school student, is trying to keep her family together following the accidental death of her...
A young teen struggles to balance responsibilities she shouldn't have to assume against the day-to-day travails of seventh grade.
Serena Shaw, a spirited middle-school student, is trying to keep her family together following the accidental death of her mother and the subsequent debilitating depression of her father, a noted illustrator. Her little brother is having problems coping with the change in their family. For a while, Serena thinks her father is just in a funk, and there are moments when he is able to work, but these are outweighed by days when he doesn’t get out of bed. Serena has always dreamed of getting the lead in her school musical, but this means more pressure as she works on the play and assumes more responsibility at home as her father slips deeper into “the blue.” She tries everything to reach her father, but his condition worsens with each day, culminating in an attempt to take his life. Finally, a family member steps in to help in the crisis. The portrayal of Serena is strong, showing both her maturity in handling her family problems and her normal seventh-grade insecurities. There are moments of great poignancy as Serena remembers her mother, who, though absent, is still an important figure.Pub Date: July 19, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-36914-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: June 6, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Strong on platform, the result is more fiction-seasoned cookbook than recipe-studded novel, best suited for precocious cooks...
When not at school, taking cooking classes or working in her family’s roti shop in Queens, Anjali, 13, dreams of becoming the Food Network’s youngest chef.
When she’s chosen to audition for Super Chef Kids on the Food Network, she has a chance to make her dream come true, but there’s a problem. Her Trinidadian-immigrant parents want Anjali to take the Stuyvesant High School entrance exam, which happens to coincide with the audition. After they insist she drop the audition, Anjali hatches a plan with her best friend, Linc, to go to the audition instead. In her fiction debut, the author reveals a gift for creating compact, vivid character portraits, yet whenever the plot shows signs of taking off, she marches it back to the kitchen. Taking up about 20 percent of the book, the recipes (some appear in Ganeshram’s cookbook of Trinidadian cuisine) are intriguing. But while enticing for foodies, most assume considerable culinary know-how. Some ingredients—callaloo leaves, fresh cassava, mixed essence—may be a hard sell for young readers and hard to locate outside cosmopolitan urban centers.
Strong on platform, the result is more fiction-seasoned cookbook than recipe-studded novel, best suited for precocious cooks open to culinary adventure. (recipes, author’s note) (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-545-16582-2
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
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