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
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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