A delightful read for anyone who loves magic.
When 12-year-old Rufus Takada Collins finds an old train, it puts him in the midst of a magical, life-or-death scavenger hunt.
After a school year characterized by what he thinks of as a series of Fatal Errors, Rufus is looking forward to spending the summer with Grandpa Jack at Feylawn, the family property that encompasses forest, meadow, creek, and orchard. At Feylawn, Rufus finds an old-fashioned locomotive. Unfortunately, Grandpa Jack is hurt falling through rotting floorboards before he can learn about the train, and Rufus’ father bans Rufus from Feylawn. Rufus sneaks back and finds he can now see fairylike creatures called feylings. He discovers the train is the feylings’ only way home, and it’s been missing for years. With the help of his pretentious cousin, Rufus must decipher old clues to find the missing train parts. But this journey leads him to possibly the ultimate Fatal Error. With mischievous feylings, goblins, and magic, this is an exciting, fast-paced middle-grade fantasy. The characters’ experiences are also grounded in the real world: parental unemployment, divorce, friendship, familial bonds, growing up, family secrets, grief, and loss. Big lessons for readers and Rufus both are the importance of looking at the bigger picture and understanding how choices affect more than just ourselves. Both cousins are biracial; Rufus’ mother is of Japanese heritage, and his father is white, and Abigail’s father is Mexican, and her mother is white.
A delightful read for anyone who loves magic. (map) (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: July 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-374-30119-4
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2020
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Another zippy charmer—no Quibbles here.
The mad scientist Porch sisters finally face off against the abominable (and newly reanimated) Talon Sharktūth.
Following their escapades at the titular hotel in Secrets of the Purple Pearl (2025), sisters Dee-Dee, Eugenia, and Gertrude, who are adopted, find themselves swept up in another adventure with the Lavinias, Aunt Desdemona, and their 98-year-old Grantie Lettuce in ParisToo, which is “like Paris but smaller, and it’s in upstate New York.” Of course, the girls’ beloved mentor and teacher, Millicent Quibb, pops in and out, both warning and helping the trio. The Porches are Apocryphs, and each one has a unique power. Their sightseeing trip around ParisToo feels a bit too convenient, and as suspicious coincidences mount (along with sightings of members of the KRA, the shadowy cabal that revived Sharktūth), the girls suspect that something sinister is afoot. They eventually learn the truth of Sharktūth’s scheme, but can they stop him and the KRA before it’s too late? This third series entry satisfyingly answers many of the lingering questions of its predecessors. With all the zest and zeal of a caffeinated squirrel, this installment delivers the series’ patented quirkiness and giggle-generating plotlines, footnotes, and illustrations. Millicent Quibb wisely opines that “it takes much bravery, to be different…but really, if no one dared to do it, who would save the day?” This is an endearing tale of found family and believing in oneself, with an ending that hints at further adventures.
Another zippy charmer—no Quibbles here. (Adventure. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780316555814
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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