Rodda liberally sprinkles nursery-rhyme references and fairy-tale motifs among her own fresh details to create a splendidly vivid world. Leo and his “least-favorite second cousin” Mimi have seen each other annually at Great-Aunt Bethany’s prim afternoon teas. When Great-Aunt Bethany dies and leaves Leo a finely painted music box, he plans to obey its strict rules—“Turn the key three times only,” etc.—but Mimi comes to visit and immediately the music box is overwound. The tiny, delicately bold paintings on its sides come to life, springing into Leo’s bedroom. An evil queen snatches Mimi’s dog back into the music-box world, and Leo and Mimi are off in pursuit. Despite clashing temperaments, the two stick together through their frightening and colorful travels, while adults seem to constantly flip-flop in trustworthiness. Many references are inexplicit and connections left until the satisfying end; Rodda trusts her readers and gives them sweetness and real emotion with zero sentimentality. A perfect companion to Lyn Gardner’s Into the Woods (2007). (Fantasy. 9-12)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-545-03535-4
Page Count: 342
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2007
Designed more for a quick flip-through than any sort of serious study, this appendage to 2004’s Egyptology looks like a battered notebook of general remarks about ancient Egypt with memorabilia clipped in, compiled by “Emily Sands,” the fictive vanished archeologist. The special effects are limited to a page of stickers, a pasted-in envelope and a few flimsy flaps; the illustrations mix shadowy pencil drawings with realistically drawn old photos, brochures, leather edges, stains and scraps of ephemera. The text, written with eye-glazing dullness and presented in alternating blocks of globby typewriter face and a nearly illegible italic script, is rife with vague claims—“ . . . there is evidence that a large number of the population could read and write, including a number of women”—unsupported by specific information, sources or even an index. Flashy but perfunctory. (Fictionalized nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-7636-2932-4
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The secret door behind the wardrobe may be a bit much, but in general this suspenseful tale of three young folks winkling out secrets in an old stone house is well-endowed with the requisite elements. His twin Julia may mock him, but Jason is sure that Argo Manor, their family’s new home, is haunted. And Rick, their new friend from the small town nearby, is skeptical but eager enough to go along to explore the mysterious mansion, once the home of strange recluse Ulysses Moore. Bickering constantly but plainly thinking the world of each other, the twins, along with their brooding buddy, make smart, effervescent protagonists. Throw in the occasional atmospheric drawing, a mansion filled with books, nooks, antiques and shadows, absent parents, an enigmatic old caretaker, a series of coded messages, a secret passage leading into the cliff and a hidden cavern concealing a ship with unusual properties—and it all adds up to one of the past year’s most promising, tantalizing series openers. (Fantasy. 10-12)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-439-77438-1
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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