An entertaining coming-of-age tale with a serious environmental message.
A young detective takes on the case of her missing parents in this debut middle-grade novel.
Despite her conventional name, 10-year-old Susan Jones is no ordinary kid. As Madame X, she’s a private eye, solving such mysteries as a lost phone or stolen toys. Her parents aren’t routine either; they’re marine biologists, famous for their TV specials, who travel the world hoping to save the oceans. When they disappear, Susan has a new case to solve—which soon becomes wrapped up in another mystery. Susan; her best friend, Johnny Peters; and his 7-year-old brother, Teddy, discover bizarre elfin creatures called Thingamabobs living underground in Susan’s town. They claim to be purely beneficial to humans, but a note has warned Susan that “They have your parents.” A Thingamabob leader promises to help if Susan can find an errant Bob—but all is not as it seems. Following clues, Susan and her friends investigate beneath the town, where they discover that the area’s septic issues are related to Bob activities. The Bobs are trying to take over the entire underground and destroying the ecosystem above. A desperate note from her parents gives Susan her mission: “If you can save the creeks, you can save us.” Susan and her friends undertake a wild and often gross quest in underground sewers and creeks, hoping to save the Joneses and their town before it’s too late. In her novel, Conway tells an exciting story that appeals on several levels: as a mystery, an adventure, and an ecology parable. In addition to the striking plot, the characters are strong; Susan’s voice is a fresh and funny pleasure, as when describing being caught in a maelstrom of chilly sewer water: “It was like being in an evil, cold Jacuzzi.” Susan grows as she appreciates her ability to change the world, and she shows initiative, courage, and good instincts in her detective work. Also compelling are debut illustrator Angelovic’s images, which have a cool retro style that captures the book’s energy and originality.
An entertaining coming-of-age tale with a serious environmental message.Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-73317-178-6
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Zealot Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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