A 10-year-old vampire courageously agrees to help two mortal children track down a serial killer.
Readers fond of nocturnal whodunits festooned with sly twists and tweaks from opening page to terrifying climax are in for a treat—but Moulton has much to offer here besides gore and glory. Found as a baby in the ruins of a synagogue following a hate crime and bitten to save his life, Adam has been raised by his vampiric foster moms in strict isolation from dangerous mortals. But so appalled is he to learn of a series of gruesome murders around his hometown of Lacey, Washington, that he nerves himself to hide his fangs with a scarf, control his yearning for blood (something Victor, his toxically adolescent foster bro, is disinclined to do), and join two chance-met amateur investigators: Luis and Shoshana. The killer’s identity makes things complicated and scary—but if, by the end, the threat hasn’t been permanently dealt with, it’s at least resolved for the moment, and Adam has strengthened bonds with not only his mortal friends, but family too, specifically Victor and Sung, his nonbinary, college-aged, Korean foster sibling. Shoshana helps Adam understand how, as an “obligate hemovore,” he can still be Jewish, and this story, which features an ethnically diverse cast, thoughtfully pushes back against significant antisemitic elements in Bram Stoker’s Dracula and vampire lore in general.
Members of persecuted minorities unite to fight crime: icky, impish, and thematically rich. (author’s note) (Light horror. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781774880494
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: tomorrow
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Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
Categories: CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense.
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In the midst of political turmoil, how do you escape the only country that you’ve ever known and navigate a new life? Parallel stories of three different middle school–aged refugees—Josef from Nazi Germany in 1938, Isabel from 1994 Cuba, and Mahmoud from 2015 Aleppo—eventually intertwine for maximum impact.
Three countries, three time periods, three brave protagonists. Yet these three refugee odysseys have so much in common. Each traverses a landscape ruled by a dictator and must balance freedom, family, and responsibility. Each initially leaves by boat, struggles between visibility and invisibility, copes with repeated obstacles and heart-wrenching loss, and gains resilience in the process. Each third-person narrative offers an accessible look at migration under duress, in which the behavior of familiar adults changes unpredictably, strangers exploit the vulnerabilities of transients, and circumstances seem driven by random luck. Mahmoud eventually concludes that visibility is best: “See us….Hear us. Help us.” With this book, Gratz accomplishes a feat that is nothing short of brilliant, offering a skillfully wrought narrative laced with global and intergenerational reverberations that signal hope for the future. Excellent for older middle grade and above in classrooms, book groups, and/or communities looking to increase empathy for new and existing arrivals from afar.
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense. (maps, author’s note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: July 25, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-88083-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
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