For her tenth birthday, puzzle enthusiast Winston Breen gave his little sister Katie a decorative box with a secret compartment containing four curious strips of wood with numbers and letters. Their efforts to solve this mystery lead the two into a treasure hunt requiring them to cooperate with the local librarian and two unsavory strangers, under the supervision of policemen, an attractive journalist and Winston’s helpful junior-high friends. The puzzle’s creator, like Winston’s father, wants siblings to share. Although Katie inexplicably is not a part of Winston’s first meeting with the treasure hunters, and is consistently seen as a bit young for the action (which may annoy some readers), she plays an important part in the solution of one of the more complicated puzzles that make up the plot. Along the way, the author includes a number of relatively simple word and number games, some old and some new, for readers to solve. (The answers are in the back.) Both the children and the adults do learn to cooperate, an obvious message but one puzzle-loving readers may not mind. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-399-24693-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
A thought-provoking title for sophisticated readers.
A missing boy returns from another world. Will anyone believe his story?
When 12-year-old Aidan goes missing, his family and community members search everywhere in their small town. Things progress from worrying to terrifying when Aidan doesn’t turn up. No note. No trace. Not even a body. Six days later, Aidan’s younger brother, Lucas, finds Aidan alive in the attic they’d searched many times before. Aidan claims he was in a magical world called Aveinieu and that he got there through a dresser. While everyone around the brothers searches for answers, Lucas gets Aidan to open up about Aveinieu. Lucas, who narrates the story, grapples with the impossibility of the situation as he pieces it all together. Is any part of Aidan’s story true? YA veteran Levithan’s first foray into middle grade is a poignant tale of brotherly love and family trauma. The introspective writing, funneled through a precocious narrator, is as much about what truth means as about what happened. Though an engaging read for the way it makes readers consider and reconsider the mystery, the slow burn may deter those craving tidy resolutions. Bookish readers, however, will delight in the homages to well-known books, including When You Reach Me and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The cast defaults to White; the matter-of-fact inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters is noteworthy.
A thought-provoking title for sophisticated readers. (Mystery/fantasy. 10-13)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-984848-59-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
A page-turner that creatively explores resonant themes.
When Hurricane Jessamine assaults North Carolina, the Highground Home for Children is threatened by a once-in-a-lifetime flood.
Thirteen-year-old Sylvia Doe, who has brown skin and black hair, is a runaway who’s fled yet another foster home to once again return to Highground, a transitional institution that offers equine therapy for children awaiting foster placement. But this time her journey back to Highground is driven by different concerns. As the hurricane batters the valley, unprecedented flooding threatens the horses, home, and people Sylvia cares about. She secretly hitches a ride in a logging truck, risking her life to save her beloved horses. She also helps Jorna Grant, a mysterious 13-year-old Black boy. Jorna is strange, and Sylvia can’t quite figure him out, although he, too, seems “like a runner. And every runner has a reason.” Her social worker tries to figure out a new placement where Sylvia will stay put, but Sylvia longs to remain at Highground permanently, even though North Carolina state rules won’t allow it. She also has another goal: to find out where Jorna came from and help him return home. She’s also convinced there’s “something much more happening” with the flood. Adventurous and suspenseful, this story pairs environmental science content with a genre-blurring mystery. Field guide–style illustrations of the animals that Sylvia encounters on her journey add a valuable learning component that emphasizes the ecological themes present throughout the book.
A page-turner that creatively explores resonant themes. (author’s note) (Mystery. 10-14)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024
ISBN: 9781368007580
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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