This mystery/animal/humor/environment story starts off with a bang—make that a chimp! “On a Dark and Noisy Night,” a weird scientist friend of Rachel’s father pounds on their door at 2:00 in the morning and insists they keep his lab chimp for a week while he’s gone. He offers no explanations because it’s TOP SECRET! Rachel, 12, and her brother Jared, 9, immediately adore the chimp, which they name Friday. At first they try to keep Friday secret, but when the scientist is found dead from slipping on a banana peel, Rachel intuitively knows there’s a plot at work. Ensuing events build the tension: someone keeps trying to chimp-nap Friday; Rachel salvages her sabotaged Earth Day project, “Honey, I Shrunk the Habitat,” by using Friday as a live demonstration; Friday’s increasing displays of intelligence—typing BANANA on the computer and solving Rubik’s Cube; and assorted suspicious lurkers around the apartment building. Set in New York’s Upper West Side, Rachel is a contemporary cross between Nancy Drew and Harriet the Spy. Her detective antics will have kids speed-reading to solve the mystery. An author’s note substantiates that she raised a chimp in a Manhattan apartment and her experience as a TV comedy writer accounts for the fast pace, pun-filled scenes, and snappy dialogue. The attention-grabbing cover and immensely popular premise will likely have kids going bananas over this fun story that’s ready-made for movie land. (Side note: the page design alternately prints the author’s name and book title on every page—annoying and unnecessary.) (Fiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: June 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-689-83837-9
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2002
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
Though it lacks nuance, still a must-read.
Tyler is the son of generations of Vermont dairy farmers.
Mari is the Mexican-born daughter of undocumented migrant laborers whose mother has vanished in a perilous border crossing. When Tyler’s father is disabled in an accident, the only way the family can afford to keep the farm is by hiring Mari’s family. As Tyler and Mari’s friendship grows, the normal tensions of middle-school boy-girl friendships are complicated by philosophical and political truths. Tyler wonders how he can be a patriot while his family breaks the law. Mari worries about her vanished mother and lives in fear that she will be separated from her American-born sisters if la migra comes. Unashamedly didactic, Alvarez’s novel effectively complicates simple equivalencies between what’s illegal and what’s wrong. Mari’s experience is harrowing, with implied atrocities and immigration raids, but equally full of good people doing the best they can. The two children find hope despite the unhappily realistic conclusions to their troubles, in a story which sees the best in humanity alongside grim realities.
Though it lacks nuance, still a must-read. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-375-85838-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2008
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