Math, logic problems, and puzzles solvable by readers who want to try, all in a diverting chapter-book mystery.
The four fourth grade Math Kids discover a cipher which leads them on a treasure hunt.
Jordan and his friends, having defeated all the other fourth grade classes in their school, busily prep for the district math contest by solving challenging logic puzzles. But do they have a real-life puzzle to solve, as well? Stephanie finds strange symbols written in a library book. Justin immediately identifies the symbols as a pigpen cipher, and the Math Kids are off on an adventure. The pigpen cipher leads to another puzzle that seems to be nonsense blocks of letters. Each puzzle points to another, with both the ciphers and the math-contest practice presenting many opportunities for interested readers to try for a solution themselves. Frustratingly, know-it-all Justin, illustrated as White, has more of the puzzle-solving epiphanies than all of his friends put together; Stephanie, illustrated with brown skin, has almost none. (In the simple, semirealistic illustrations, Jordan also has brown skin, and Catherine presents White.) Nonetheless, the exciting conclusion is a true group solve, with the kids deciphering the overall metapuzzle, accomplishing as a team what they never could have solo. An appendix doesn’t always clarify, but its explanations of cryptography and the Enigma Machine are stellar.
Math, logic problems, and puzzles solvable by readers who want to try, all in a diverting chapter-book mystery. (Mystery. 8-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-988761-56-5
Page Count: 145
Publisher: Common Deer Press
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
A series kickoff with a promising mix of chills and chortles.
Monterrosa seems like an ordinary small town—until a resident is bitten by a strange-looking dog one night while taking a stroll past the graveyard.
When popular teacher Mr. Chu suddenly acquires a mean streak, superfast reflexes, and a weird giggle, worried fourth-graders Carlos and Benny (the Latino narrator and white best pal, respectively) rush off to do some research—in, where else, the local comic-book store. With help from store owner Mrs. Tamasese (known as the Samoan Slammer in her wrestling days, before an injury put her in a wheelchair), they reach the obvious conclusion that Mr. Chu will become a were-hyena unless he’s cured before the next full moon. Not so easy! Hale clearly crafts a main cast with an eye toward diversity, cued in the narrative with names, expressions in Spanish, references to hair and eye color and the like, and explicitly in the occasional line-drawn illustrations. He also unveils a supporting array of family members, shape changers, child-sacrificing cultists, and menacing strangers. Chucking in the odd gnawed corpse for atmosphere and butt references for laughs, the author provides narrow squeaks and plot twists galore. By the end, Carlos, Benny, and tough African-American classmate Tina “Karate Girl” Green emerge as a team of seasoned monster hunters—just in time for the next episode’s teaser.
A series kickoff with a promising mix of chills and chortles. (Light horror. 8-10)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4847-1325-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
Neither funny nor frightening, but it will have an audience.
Librarian of the Haunted Mansion (and nominal “author”) Amicus Ravenswood tries to outfright four 12-year-old tale spinners.
Tim, Noah, Willa, and Steve call themselves the Fearsome Foursome. They all love the horror writing of Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft and convene every week at their clubhouse to try to outscare one another by telling frightening tales. One stormy day, their clubhouse is destroyed; in its place are four fancy invitations to an unfamiliar address. That evening they meet at the ornate gates of a sprawling estate and enter (at their own risk, of course) to find a creepy librarian ready to tell them eerie tales—four in all, each starring one of the Fearsome Foursome. Tim finds a cursed baseball glove. Willa wishes her pets back to life with a “gypsy” token. Noah grows some primordial life-forms in the backyard pool. And Steve gets caught in a deadly game of dare…or dare. Each tale has a grisly (if unbelievable) end, as does the collection. Esposito comes to books from film and TV, including R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour, and the four stories in this slick, scare-free package, narrated intrusively by cut-rate Crypt Keeper clone Ravenswood, could have been plucked from any tome in Jovial Bob’s Goosebumps book brand. Final art by comic artist Jones not seen; the text does not paint the characters as notably diverse.
Neither funny nor frightening, but it will have an audience. (Horror. 8-11)Pub Date: July 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4847-1329-7
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Disney Press
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2016
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