Only for series fans who haven’t moved on.
The Cahill kids continue their clue quest to save the world.
Though still a teenager, Amy Cahill’s the leader of the rich and powerful Cahill family, so it falls to her and her younger brother, Dan, to decode the notebook of family founder Olivia Cahill. They need to find the ingredients to the antidote to the family’s special serum, which has fallen into the hands of evil media mogul J. Rutherford Pierce, thanks to Sammy Mourad, a distant Cahill cousin. Having secured the first ingredient (Nowhere to Run, 2013), the duo and a few friends and relatives jet off to find the second, a supposedly extinct grain called silphium. Pierce’s men (most of whom have taken the serum and now enjoy superhuman strength and intelligence) follow in hot pursuit, and Pierce’s media holdings spread lies about Amy and her cohorts. Can Amy and Dan get along, find the ingredients and keep their friends safe? Can they even survive? Hirsch picks up where Jude Watson’s first volume (of this new 39 Clues quartet) left off, with more improbable adventures and shallow characters. The series that has, in the past, been penned by some powerhouse authors wears a bit thin in this 19th book. Characters pop up with no introductions or backgrounding, and little time’s spent catching readers up on past events. Topping the online game and trading cards, look for a movie next year.
Only for series fans who haven’t moved on. (Mutiplatform fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-52142-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
Slick sleuthing punctuated by action on the boards and insights into differences that matter—and those that don’t.
Brothers, one neurodivergent, team up to shoot baskets and find a thief.
With the coach spit-bellowing at him to play better or get out, basketball tryouts are such a disaster for 11-year-old Green that he pelts out of the gym—becoming the chief suspect to everyone except his fiercely protective older brother, Cedar, when a valuable ring vanishes from the coach’s office. Used to being misunderstood, Green is less affected by the assumption of his guilt than Cedar, whose violent reactions risk his suspension. Switching narrative duties in alternating first-person chapters, the brothers join forces to search for clues to the real thief—amassing notes, eliminating possibilities (only with reluctance does Green discard Ringwraiths from his exhaustive list of possible perps), and, on the way to an ingenious denouement, discovering several schoolmates and grown-ups who, like Cedar, see Green as his own unique self, not just another “special needs” kid. In an author’s note, King writes that he based his title characters on family members, adding an element of conviction to his portrayals of Green as a smart, unathletic tween with a wry sense of humor and of Cedar’s attachment to him as founded in real affection, not just duty. Ultimately, the author finds positive qualities to accentuate in most of the rest of the cast too, ending on a tide of apologies and fence-mendings. Cedar and Green default to White.
Slick sleuthing punctuated by action on the boards and insights into differences that matter—and those that don’t. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-66590-261-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A waggish tale with a serious (and timely) theme.
An age-old rivalry is reluctantly put aside when two young vacationers are lost in the wilderness.
Anthropomorphic—in body if definitely not behavior—Dogg Scout Oscar and pampered Molly Hissleton stray from their separate camps, meet by chance in a trackless magic forest, and almost immediately recognize that their only chance of survival, distasteful as the notion may be, lies in calling a truce. Patterson and Grabenstein really work the notion here that cooperation is better than prejudice founded on ignorance and habit, interspersing explicit exchanges on the topic while casting the squabbling pair with complementary abilities that come out as they face challenges ranging from finding food to escaping such predators as a mountain lion and a pack of vicious “weaselboars.” By the time they cross a wide river (on a raft steered by “Old Jim,” an otter whose homespun utterances are generally cribbed from Mark Twain—an uneasy reference) back to civilization, the two are BFFs. But can that friendship survive the return, with all the social and familial pressures to resume the old enmity? A climactic cage-match–style confrontation before a worked-up multispecies audience provides the answer. In the illustrations (not seen in finished form) López plops wide-eyed animal heads atop clothed, more or less human forms and adds dialogue balloons for punchlines.
A waggish tale with a serious (and timely) theme. (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-41156-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
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