A scary tale hobbled by a disingenuous family history.
Minnesota siblings Mel, Will, and Ariel Griffin are excited to spend a week in England with their favorite aunt, Effie, at her home in the Griffinage, a cottage that is near a grand old manor.
Upon arrival, Meg feels a strange, itchy presence. Will, an adept pianist, hears a haunting tune from the church bells only to learn that it hasn’t been played on them in 50 years. And there are legends that the manor is haunted. In the cottage attic, 5-year-old Ariel encounters a ghost-child, Kay Kay. Ariel sees her as a friend, but Aunt Effie’s lovable Newfoundland dog feels the need to protect the child, as Kay Kay wishes to lure her into a well to her death in order to have a companion forever. This ghost story, though slow in some parts, has a quality of intrigue that could chill even readers older than the targeted middle-grade audience. The children are multiracial, a fact readers may feel has been introduced more as an accessory than anything else; they are described with curly hair and passing-light skin (but depicted on the cover with very brown skin), but their heritage is otherwise largely elided, cultural tension introduced and then dismissed almost before readers notice. The book otherwise hews to the white default.
A scary tale hobbled by a disingenuous family history. (Supernatural adventure. 10-12)Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5344-3088-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
The Baudelaire children—Violet, 14, Klaus, 12, and baby Sunny—are exceedingly ill-fated; Snicket extracts both humor and horror from their situation, as he gleefully puts them through one terrible ordeal after another. After receiving the news that their parents died in a fire, the three hapless orphans are delivered into the care of Count Olaf, who “is either a third cousin four times removed, or a fourth cousin three times removed.” The villainous Count Olaf is morally depraved and generally mean, and only takes in the downtrodden yet valiant children so that he can figure out a way to separate them from their considerable inheritance. The youngsters are able to escape his clutches at the end, but since this is the first installment in A Series of Unfortunate Events, there will be more ghastly doings. Written with old-fashioned flair, this fast-paced book is not for the squeamish: the Baudelaire children are truly sympathetic characters who encounter a multitude of distressing situations. Those who enjoy a little poison in their porridge will find it wicked good fun. (b&w illustrations, not seen) (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 30, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-440766-7
Page Count: 162
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1999
The magic of reading is given a refreshingly real twist.
This is the way Pearl’s world ends: not with a bang but with a scream.
Pearl Moran was born in the Lancaster Avenue branch library and considers it more her home than the apartment she shares with her mother, the circulation librarian. When the head of the library’s beloved statue of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay is found to be missing, Pearl’s scream brings the entire neighborhood running. Thus ensues an enchanting plunge into the underbelly of a failing library and a city brimful of secrets. With the help of friends old, uncertainly developing, and new, Pearl must spin story after compelling story in hopes of saving what she loves most. Indeed, that love—of libraries, of books, and most of all of stories—suffuses the entire narrative. Literary references are peppered throughout (clarified with somewhat superfluous footnotes) in addition to a variety of tangential sidebars (the identity of whose writer becomes delightfully clear later on). Pearl is an odd but genuine narrator, possessed of a complex and emotional inner voice warring with a stridently stubborn outer one. An array of endearing supporting characters, coupled with a plot both grounded in stressful reality and uplifted by urban fantasy, lend the story its charm. Both the neighborhood and the library staff are robustly diverse. Pearl herself is biracial; her “long-gone father” was black and her mother is white. Bagley’s spot illustrations both reinforce this and add gentle humor.
The magic of reading is given a refreshingly real twist. (reading list) (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4521-6952-1
Page Count: 392
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
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