A spellbinder for Choose Your Own Adventure fans.
The heat’s literally on as nearly all the magic disappears from suddenly sweltering Haventry, and you—yeti sleuth Klaus Solstaag’s assistant—must pick a path to find out where it’s gone.
Both a really big dragon and the upcoming Magicon convention will be seriously affected if the town’s suddenly absent magic isn’t recovered tout de suite. “My wiz is a was!” wails a woeful wizard. Capping most of the chapters with up to five different options to follow, Jones sends the hairy gumshoe and you, his unnamed point-of-view sidekick, scurrying back and forth to link clues and suspects to the theft—even as earthquakes and rising temperatures signal impending disaster. Having introduced a host of possible perps, ranging from Enid the Evil Enchantress (who’s the head of the entire League of Evil) to Moondance, “the world’s most inspirational unicorn guru,” and mad scientist Night Mayor Franklefink, who disingenuously keeps insisting that it’s all just a temporary glitch in the abraca-router, the author provides plotlines aplenty ending in multiple separate denouements. Plotlines aren’t all that get tweaked here either; amused readers may well take to heart a witch’s remark at one point that “being evil is a lifestyle choice. It doesn’t mean you’re bad.” Forshaw’s lively scenes add to the fun and portray a multispecies cast of elves, cryptids, witches, and humans with subtly varying skin tones.
A spellbinder for Choose Your Own Adventure fans. (Mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: July 7, 2026
ISBN: 9798217143337
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Contagiously goofy and fun.
Area 51 gets its first new resident in 5 years—and a new mystery.
When her grandma moves into a kid-free retirement home, 12-year-old orphan Priya “Sky” Patel-Baum and Spike, her pet hedgehog, relocate to Area 51 to live with Sky’s eccentric Uncle Anish. At 51, humans and Break Throughs (government-speak for aliens) live together off-grid in harmony. Unfortunately, several Zdstrammars (one of many Break Through species) mysteriously disappear, disrupting the base’s harmony and contributing to feelings of suspicion. Despite being deputy head of the Federal Bureau of Alien Investigations, Uncle Anish becomes a prime suspect. Can Sky and Elvis, her alien classmate, prove Uncle Anish’s innocence and find the missing Zdstrammars before it’s too late? YA author Buxbaum’s middle-grade debut is a rip-roaring series opener complete with over-the-top characters and jokes galore. Naidu’s black-and-white cartoon illustrations extend the comedy with ongoing commentary that smartly interacts with the prose. The cast of Break Through species—like Audiotooters, Galzorian, and Sanitizoria—have hilariously creative on-the-nose names with illustrations to match. Sky is coded biracial, with a White dad and Indian mom. Aliens appear in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors; Elvis shape-shifts but looks like a brown-skinned boy to Sky. Though the main mystery is neatly wrapped up, the cliffhanger ending promises more laughs.
Contagiously goofy and fun. (Mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-42946-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
Delightful fun for budding mystery fans.
Only children, rejoice! A cozy mystery just for you! (People with siblings will probably enjoy it too.)
Debut novelist Cornett introduces the One and Onlys, a trio of mystery-solving only kids: Gloria Longshanks “Shanks” Hill, Alexander “Peephole” Calloway, and narrator Paul (alas, no nickname) Marconi. The trio has a knack for finding and solving low-level mysteries, but they come up against a true head-scratcher when the yard of a resident of their small town is covered in rubber ducks overnight. Working ahead of Officer Portnoy, who’s a little on the slow side, can Paul, Shanks, and Peephole solve the mystery? Cornett has a lot of fun with this adventure, dropping additional side mysteries, a subplot about small businesses, big corporations, and economics, and a town’s love of bratwurst into the mix. Most importantly, he plays fair with the clues throughout, allowing astute readers to potentially solve the case ahead of the trio. The tone and mystery are perfect for younger readers who want to test their detective skills but are put off by anything scary or gory. The pacing would serve well for chapter-by-chapter read-alouds. If there are any quibbles, it’s the lack of diversity of the cast, as it defaults white. Diversity exists in small towns, and this one is crying out for more. Hopefully a sequel will introduce additional faces.
Delightful fun for budding mystery fans. (Mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-3003-6
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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