A successful turn by a promising new author.
A tale bursting with intrigue and adventure finds its setting deep in the South Carolina Lowcountry.
Twelve-year-old Abbey Force has had a rough time of things lately. Her beloved father has suffered an accident and now lies in the hospital in a coma. Meanwhile, he has been accused of stealing from a client named Miss Lydia Jenkins, and his law firm, in an attempt to salvage its reputation, has sold the Force family home, Reward Plantation, in order to repay her. Abbey is forced to go and live with her good-for-nothing Uncle Charlie and his wife, Ruth. Her luck begins to change when the new owners, also named Force, well-to-do descendants of the slaves who once lived at Reward, take up residence at the plantation. She and new best friend and neighbor Bee Force stumble upon a mystery—someone is digging holes at Felony Bay, perhaps in search of buried treasure. Soon, they are neck deep in a dangerous mess involving Abbey’s father’s so-called crime, her Uncle Charlie, Miss Jenkins’ riches and possibly the town sheriff. A predictable outcome, lengthy final explanations seeking to tie up loose ends and one too many subplots weigh this one down. Bee and Abbey are amiable protagonists, though, and their spunk and perseverance, combined with the realistic and richly developed setting, deliver considerable appeal.
A successful turn by a promising new author. (Mystery. 9-12)Pub Date: April 30, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210446-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
Warm, delicious and filling.
What do you get when you take some scrumptious pie recipes, stir in a mix-up of a mystery involving an overweight cat and a legacy, then add a sly satirical nod to the Newbery Medal? This irresistible confection.
In 1955, 10-year-old Alice’s beloved Aunt Polly, the peerless “Pie Queen of Ipswitch,” who has always given away the extraordinary products of her oven simply because it makes her happy, dies. She bequeaths her incomparable piecrust recipe to Lardo, her cat—or does she?—and leaves Lardo to Alice. Thus the stage is set for a rich, layered and funny tale about friendship, family relationships and doing what’s right. The characters are wonderfully drawn. While doing her best to carry on Aunt Polly’s legacy, trying to figure out how to wrest the secret from the cat, dealing with a nefarious woman poking around town and learning about the renowned “Blueberry Medal,” which everyone in town is trying to win, Alice draws closer to her mom, a resolution Aunt Polly would have cherished. Alice and her family eventually discover the solution to the mystery in a plot twist that is both comical and plausible. An epilogue, set in 1995, is deeply poignant and gratifying. In addition to the beautifully wrought story, readers will savor and want to attempt the 14 recipes, each of which precedes a chapter.
Warm, delicious and filling. (recipes, pie credits) (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-545-27011-3
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2011
A perfectly acceptable and predictable trifle. (Science fiction. 9-12)
Sammy is less than thrilled when his genius inventor mother creates a robot brother for him.
Sammy Hayes-Rodriguez's life has always been filled with robots. His mother has invented automatons that clean the floors, mow the lawn, give traffic reports and even plant fantastic gardens. Sammy's school has until now been a robot-free zone, but when Mom invents E (for Egghead, or maybe Einstein Jr.—his parents can’t decide) and insists Sammy take the new robot to school, things get out of hand. Chronicling the ups and downs of an entire school year with a robot brother, the authors put cute sci-fi twists on first-time crushes, school bullies and best-friend troubles. There's nothing here that breaks new ground or illuminates the psyche of young boys in any new or interesting ways, but there are plenty of amusing jokes. Young readers with an interest in science will certainly be engaged. A subplot featuring Sammy's younger sister, a brilliant girl who is homebound by severe combined immunodeficiency disorder, is as by-the-numbers as the rest of the book, but it doesn't tie in to the robot plot until the very end. It's hard to tell if this development is a clumsy climax or an awkward setup for a sequel. Either way, it doesn't work well with everything that came beforehand.
A perfectly acceptable and predictable trifle. (Science fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Nov. 24, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-316-40591-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 6, 2015
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