Old-school, John Saul–style horror for preteens.
Will 12-year-old Cassidy’s summer escape from New York City literally be killer?
For the past two years, Cassidy Bean has been in a program that places city kids with suburban families for the summer. When the Tremonts seem hesitant to have her back, Cassidy thinks it’s because of something that happened the previous year. Still, they do invite her again, but when she arrives in Whitechapel, New Jersey, she finds the Tremont’s son Joey, also 12, is no longer fun or friendly. Cassidy also learns that the neighborhood’s creepy curmudgeon and hoarder, Mrs. Chambers, has died. After the Chambers house is cleared out and the townsfolk pick over her treasures, ghost sightings abound—and more people die. Cassidy and her new friend, Ping, persuade Joey to help them find out what’s behind the ghosts and the disappearing bodies. What they discover is worse than anything in Cassidy’s therapy journal, her Book of Bad Things. Poblocki’s return, full of mystery, monsters and ghosts, is sure to satisfy his fans. A solid main character, Cassidy is surrounded by a good supporting cast, and her past troubles figure nicely in the tale and its resolution. Ghostly bits and creepy action are more interesting than the cause of the “haunting,” but the book will nevertheless supply chills, especially if read at night.
Old-school, John Saul–style horror for preteens. (Horror. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-64553-9
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers will gobble this down and look for more, make no mythtake.
Promising myth-adventures aplenty, this kickoff episode introduces young Zeus, “a very special, yet clueless godboy.”
After 10-year-old Zeus is plucked from his childhood cave in Crete by armed “Cronies” of the Titan king, Cronus, he is rescued by harpies. He then finds himself in a Grecian temple where he acquires a lightning bolt with the general personality of a puppy and receives hints of his destiny from an Oracle with fogged eyeglasses. Recaptured and about to be eaten by Cronus, Zeus hurls the bolt down the Titan’s throat—causing the king to choke and then, thanks to an alert Crony’s Heimlich maneuver, to barf up several previously eaten Olympians. Spooning in numerous ingredients from the origin myth’s traditional versions, the veteran authors whip up a smooth confection, spiced with both gross bits and contemporary idiom (“ ‘Eew!’ a voice shrieked. ‘This is disgusting!’ ”) and well larded with full-page illustrations (not seen). One thorough washing later, off marches the now-cocky lad with new allies Poseidon and Hera, to rescue more Olympians in the next episode.
Readers will gobble this down and look for more, make no mythtake. (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-5787-4
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Fun at (ahem) times, but readers of the opener are going to be let down by the revelation that it didn’t count.
Six months after tackling invading aliens in Finn and the Intergalactic Lunchbox (2020), young Finn now takes on a time-traveling monster at the behest of his much older self.
A jumble of clever twists and goofy set pieces that never quite coalesce into coherence, the tale sends Finn Foley and buddies Lincoln Sidana and Julep Li on a long series of short time hops to eras past and present—in some of which they participate in or watch running battles between their older selves and an armored monster named Paradox who proclaims a vague intention to destroy time, or rule the universe, or something. Meanwhile, hotly pursuing Time Rangers who dress and talk like cowboys place hastily made clones that look like the trio but act like cats in the present day to serve as stand-ins…to the consternation of Finn’s baffled but take-charge little sister, Kate. In the climactic battle, Paradox survives attacks from saber-toothed tigers and armies of Revolutionary War soldiers as well as futuristic energy weapons but unravels at last when Finn reboots the entire timeline. Unfortunately, that puts a number of significant events in the previous volume in the “never happened” category. Their surnames cue Julep and Lincoln as Asian; some Rangers are people of color, and the rest of the cast presents as White.
Fun at (ahem) times, but readers of the opener are going to be let down by the revelation that it didn’t count. (Science fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: March 30, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-525-64691-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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