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THE CLEARING

While her parents, Chad and Jessie, consider relocating to Minnesota, Amanda stays with the family of her bossy, spiteful cousin. Elinore has long been the undisputed leader of the local children (among them, cousin Nelson), so Amanda challenges her, setting off petty wrangles and power struggles. Amanda turns to Cynthia, an older girl from a poor, troubled family harboring a terrible secret about a neighborhood child's tragic disappearance. Through a letter drafted by Amanda, Cynthia, and Nelson, the truth comes out, and a sad, tortured life comes to a violent conclusion. Miller's well-written debut has a stoic narrator in Amanda. But with its centerpiece the suffocation of a child, this is glum and gothic. There's not much light in this clearing, even when it's washed clean in the end. (Fiction. 10-12)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1996

ISBN: 0-689-80997-2

Page Count: 119

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1996

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A GIRL, A RACCOON, AND THE MIDNIGHT MOON

The magic of reading is given a refreshingly real twist.

This is the way Pearl’s world ends: not with a bang but with a scream.

Pearl Moran was born in the Lancaster Avenue branch library and considers it more her home than the apartment she shares with her mother, the circulation librarian. When the head of the library’s beloved statue of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay is found to be missing, Pearl’s scream brings the entire neighborhood running. Thus ensues an enchanting plunge into the underbelly of a failing library and a city brimful of secrets. With the help of friends old, uncertainly developing, and new, Pearl must spin story after compelling story in hopes of saving what she loves most. Indeed, that love—of libraries, of books, and most of all of stories—suffuses the entire narrative. Literary references are peppered throughout (clarified with somewhat superfluous footnotes) in addition to a variety of tangential sidebars (the identity of whose writer becomes delightfully clear later on). Pearl is an odd but genuine narrator, possessed of a complex and emotional inner voice warring with a stridently stubborn outer one. An array of endearing supporting characters, coupled with a plot both grounded in stressful reality and uplifted by urban fantasy, lend the story its charm. Both the neighborhood and the library staff are robustly diverse. Pearl herself is biracial; her “long-gone father” was black and her mother is white. Bagley’s spot illustrations both reinforce this and add gentle humor.

The magic of reading is given a refreshingly real twist.   (reading list) (Fantasy. 10-12)

Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-4521-6952-1

Page Count: 392

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019

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POWERLESS

From the Supers of Noble's Green series , Vol. 1

Resembling a Golden Age comic without the pictures, this tale pits a group of small-town children with superpowers—call them “preteen titans”—against a shadowy menace that robs them of those powers on their 13th birthdays. Coming to town with his family to care for his dying grandma, Daniel quickly spots his neighbor Mollie and her friends performing incredible feats. Soon he’s in their confidence, as they demonstrate combinations of super-speed, super-strength, enhanced senses and the ability to turn invisible. All of them can also hear the clock ticking, however. Gifted not with superpowers but a sharp mind and a fondness for Sherlock Holmes stories, Daniel sets out to discover how and why his new friends, like generations of their predecessors, are being robbed of their abilities. Where those abilities come from never enters in, but the obligatory wily supervillain does, leading to a titanic climactic battle. Cody wears his influences on his sleeve, but has some fun with them (one lad’s “power” is a super-stench) and crafts a tribute that, unlike M.T. Anderson’s Whales On Stilts (2005), is more admiring than silly. (Fantasy. 10-12)

Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2009

ISBN: 978-0-375-85595-5

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2009

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