A spirited, engaging tale filled with intriguing nautical details and local color.
Two resourceful 9-year-old girls, one from the U.S. and one from Mexico, solve the mystery of dinghies stolen from sailboats at a popular anchorage spot in a lagoon.
In this installment of Diller’s series, Pack-n-Go Girls Adventures (Mystery of the Secret Room, 2014, etc.), Izzy Bennett and her parents are anchored aboard the Dream Catcher in the small Mexican coastal town of Barra de Navidad as part of their yearlong sailing expedition. While sailing with her family is a great escapade, Izzy misses her friends back in Seattle and hopes to meet other boats with kids her age. At a restaurant and hotel in Barra, she meets Patti Cruz Delgado, also 9, whose family owns the place. Patti’s English is far better than Izzy’s halting Spanish, and the two quickly bond and play together for several days. Patti divulges that all is not well at this idyllic spot. Bookings are down, in part because travelers are heading to larger resorts but also because of a rash of thefts from sailboats in the anchorage. The Bennetts are concerned about the dinghy thefts and consider sailing to another spot, but Izzy is so thrilled to make such a good friend that they decide to stay put. When another dinghy disappears and Patti’s mother suspects that her son Carlos might be involved, the girls are determined to uncover the thief and exonerate Carlos. In the best tradition of girl detectives, Izzy whispers her idea to Patti: “It’s a long shot, but it just might work.” The well-paced story, with illustrations by Turner (Color Your World, 2016, etc.) that effectively complement the text, features appealingly adventurous girls. There’s a dose of realism in the characters, particularly Izzy. She’s depicted as fretful and beset with theoretical worries but overcomes them when faced with true danger. The subject of wealth is handled with refreshing candor. Patti assumes that the Bennetts must be very rich. Izzy explains how they scrimped and saved to afford this trip. They planned ahead. The author sometimes restates a point made obvious by the credible characters and clear writing (After discussing their similarities, “The two girls realized that girls are the same around the world”). And the sharing of cultures comes off as a bit facile.
A spirited, engaging tale filled with intriguing nautical details and local color.Pub Date: May 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-936376-06-3
Page Count: -
Publisher: WorldTrek Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Sarah's joy in a promising new life is threatened when her father loses his first good job. The family's financial crisis is somewhat alleviated by having a great-aunt come to live with them—with the result that Sarah must give up her dream bedroom and stay with crotchety Aunt Margaret while both parents are at work. Difficulties increase as strange events begin to occur and Sarah's mother refuses to consider Sarah's suggestion that there is a ghost, implying that Sarah is lying, and forcing her and Aunt Margaret to cope alone with the escalating violence of a malevolent spirit that turns out to be from Aunt Margaret's youth. Afraid that she too will be doubted, Aunt Margaret keeps her own counsel, resolving to return to her nursing home. In a final hair-raising encounter, Sarah helps rout the ghost, which also leads to everyone's realization that they truly are a family. Many of the motifs here will be comfortingly familiar to Wright's fans: a successful meld of family living and the satisfyingly scary supernatural. (Fiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-590-43606-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1991
This second of the ``Starbuck Family Adventures'' runs a gamut of genres from ecology thriller to fantasy. Fraternal twins Liberty and July travel to the Florida Keys with their younger identical siblings, their father, and their teacher Zanny. All four children are now proficient in talking to one another telepathically. In addition, Liberty and July connect up with a dolphin community and learn that the toxic disposal industry in the area has seriously injured an ``albino'' dolphin, turning it lavender. A boy they meet, also exposed to the toxin, has burned purple hands. Here, unfortunately, the unfolding of a solid environmental mystery turns limp and flowery whenever leatherback turtle nestings or the dolphins are discussed, while the expansiveness in these passages clashes with the twins' no- nonsense approach to their discoveries. Some facts are also so oversimplified as to be misleading (e.g. the hatching of leatherbacks), or so glossed over they become gratuitous (a lesson on navigation). In paying tribute to the Keys, Lasky is affectionate and winning; but a consistent style and a truly persuasive narrative are sacrificed in the process. (Fiction. 8- 12)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-15-273533-X
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1992
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