A compelling summer mystery, with emotional depth and life lessons to boot.
At their family’s summer island home, two cousins unearth a mystery.
When Aunt Robbie asks her estranged siblings to return to their estate, the site of childhood vacations, 12-year-old cousins Avery and Jax face intriguing questions. What happened to the aunt whose long-ago death is a forbidden topic? What will become of the island, which Grandma, who passed away two years earlier, bequeathed to Aunt Robbie? Who wrote the mysterious note describing all the siblings—perhaps a page from a diary?—that Avery found in her mom’s stuff at home? Sleuthing for clues while the adults sort through the accumulated family belongings, Avery and Jax discover more pages of the journal hidden all over the island, with clues to their aunt’s tragic death. A surprise discovery just before leaving the island forces the cousins to decide whether confronting the harsh truth will bring healing or more pain to the family, especially in light of Aunt Robbie’s disclosure that she’s dying from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Told in first-person chapters that alternate between Avery and Jax and interspersed with entries (entitled “Then”) from the journal, this cross between a mystery, family drama, and coming-of-age story is believable, insightful, and well paced, with genuine dialogue. Avery’s and Jax’s growing appreciation of each other’s self-described “faults” is an affirming central theme, alongside self-acceptance and forgiveness. Characters present white.
A compelling summer mystery, with emotional depth and life lessons to boot. (crafts instructions) (Mystery. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781546124986
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Entrancing and uplifting.
A small dog, the elderly woman who owns him, and a homeless girl come together to create a tale of serendipity.
Piper, almost 12, her parents, and her younger brother are at the bottom of a long slide toward homelessness. Finally in a family shelter, Piper finds that her newfound safety gives her the opportunity to reach out to someone who needs help even more. Jewel, mentally ill, lives in the park with her dog, Baby. Unwilling to leave her pet, and forbidden to enter the shelter with him, she struggles with the winter weather. Ree, also homeless and with a large dog, helps when she can, but after Jewel gets sick and is hospitalized, Baby’s taken to the animal shelter, and Ree can’t manage the complex issues alone. It’s Piper, using her best investigative skills, who figures out Jewel’s backstory. Still, she needs all the help of the shelter Firefly Girls troop that she joins to achieve her accomplishment: to raise enough money to provide Jewel and Baby with a secure, hopeful future and, maybe, with their kindness, to inspire a happier story for Ree. Told in the authentic alternating voices of loving child and loyal dog, this tale could easily slump into a syrupy melodrama, but Pyron lets her well-drawn characters earn their believable happy ending, step by challenging step, by reaching out and working together. Piper, her family, and Jewel present white; Pyron uses hair and naming convention, respectively, to cue Ree as black and Piper’s friend Gabriela as Latinx.
Entrancing and uplifting. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-283922-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
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