Monsters notwithstanding, weak characterization and uneven pacing create a rather toothless read.
Wheelchair-using seventh grader Harold Bell and his ghost-hunting neighbors return to take on the town monster.
Days after the events of A Bad Night for Bullies (2018), Harold and the Goolzes—horror author Frank Goolz and his daughters, beautiful Ilona and her impish kid sister, Suzie—accept a gruesome new assignment. The unnervingly “synchronized” Farrell twins explain that their mother has disappeared…except for the severed foot they’ve found. Claw marks, discarded teeth, and an ominous message—“I’ll be back for you”—suggest that their mother’s turned into the dreaded Mallow Marsh Monster, Bay Harbor’s local legend. Anyone the monster bites becomes a monster themselves—so when the monster bites Harold, the Goolzes must act fast to lift the curse. Unfortunately, this sequel to a likable first volume feels unevenly paced and somewhat halfhearted. Though budding monster Harold’s seismic belches might raise some giggles, the previous book’s humor is largely absent. Harold and Ilona’s budding romance is awkwardly sweet, but most characters are one-dimensional caricatures, lessening suspense. The twins, in matching, old-fashioned clothes and perfect unison, resemble “creepy mannequins in a tacky haunted house,” and their “nerdy” scientist parents are “discreet, bespectacled, and unfashionable”; a “giant,” likely overweight character is messy and inexplicably eats napkins. However, the Goolzes’ matter-of-fact inclusion of Harold is heartening. After a somewhat hasty resolution, a cliffhanger ending sets up another adventure. Most characters appear white; one twin has two different-colored eyes.
Monsters notwithstanding, weak characterization and uneven pacing create a rather toothless read. (Horror. 8-12)Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-62979-678-9
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Offers a hauntingly truthful view of secrets and strength.
A tale of survival, friendship, and the strength that comes from overcoming fears.
Middle schooler Jac is dealing with the fallout of a real-life nightmare: childhood cancer. But it’s not just the fear of recurrence that she has to handle, but the reality of surviving and carrying the burden of her mom’s constant worry. When Jac discovers a large house that wasn’t there before looming at the end of a street in her suburban New Jersey neighborhood, she worries it’s a hallucination, which could mean a recurrence of her illness. But after her best friend, a boy named Hazel, sees the house too, her sense of adventure takes over. Provoked by a couple of bullies who dare them to enter and then follow them inside, Jac and Hazel explore the house and are met with surprises—like a key with Jac’s likeness on it—that suggest her connection to this strange and terrifying place is personal. Before long, the kids realize they are trapped inside. Shocks follow with every new door they open as they search for an exit and discover ever increasing frights. Delightfully nightmarish visions chase Jac, offering the feel of a thrilling game with twisted and terrifying imagery, as she navigates the house, seeking to understand her connection to this unusual place in this emotionally resonant story. Characters seem to default to White.
Offers a hauntingly truthful view of secrets and strength. (Paranormal. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-313657-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
Tenderly resonant and memorable.
Ferris finds herself in the midst of several love stories during the summer before fifth grade.
Emma Phineas Wilkey’s moniker comes from the circumstances of her birth: under the Ferris wheel at the fairground. Her contained world, centered around her family and best friend, is filled with kindness, humor, and singular personalities, while the indeterminate late-20th-century small-town setting feels like a safe place from which to observe heartbreak and loss. Ferris’ architect father and her pragmatic mother, on break from teaching high school math, anchor her home life, along with Pinky, her hilariously ferocious 6-year-old sister, and Charisse, her grandmother, who claims to have seen an unhappy ghost in their big old house. Ferris’ best friend, Billy Jackson, whom she’s loved since kindergarten, hears the music of the world: “The whole world is singing all the time.” Ferris, serious and sensitive, is attuned to the ways that the vocabulary words they learned in Mrs. Mielk’s fourth grade class describe moments in her life. DiCamillo’s gift for conveying an entire person and world in a few brushstrokes of storytelling provides depth and quiet magic to this account of an eventful summer in which a ghost is appeased, an outlaw (Pinky) is somewhat reformed, and an uncle and aunt are reconciled. Ferris experiences two surprising moments of transcendence and becomes aware of the ways love suffuses everything. Characters are cued white.
Tenderly resonant and memorable. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781536231052
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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