Toil and trouble with a satisfying dash of just deserts.
A tween learns the truth about her family’s magick.
After relocating with her family from Brooklyn to small-town Oak Grove to help care for her Nana, 12-year-old white girl Maggie Havercroft has a chance to start fresh at a new middle school. But, as it turns out, being a Havercroft in Oak Grove means having a target on your back because everyone thinks you’re a witch. The rumors start immediately, and school bullies lock onto Maggie and her new friend, Ivy, a bleached-blond Wednesday Addams. Meanwhile, something creepy is going on at Nana’s house. The walls seem to breathe. Lights flicker on and off, revealing dark figures. Nightmares that feel like actual memories make Maggie wonder if it’s the house that’s haunted—or her. It turns out her family is just cursed. It’s up to Maggie and Ivy to find a way to break the curse for good. Wilde’s atmospheric writing combined with Maggie’s tight first-person narration makes for deliciously slow reveals and goosebump-inducing scenes. The overall plot may feel familiar, yet the queer and feminist overtones and inclusive cast make this a fresh, witchy brew. Maggie’s autism, ADHD, and anxiety are thoughtfully depicted, with the notable inclusion of details like noise-canceling headphones. Ivy is trans, and one of Maggie’s parents is nonbinary. The story contains some transphobia, homophobia, and ableism, but the central prejudice explored in the book is “witchphobia.”
Toil and trouble with a satisfying dash of just deserts. (Paranormal. 9-12)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781546152385
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Another reliably eerie outing from a master of under-the-sheets reading.
Terrified children find the borders between bad dreams and reality breaking down in this stand-alone screamfest.
Stine kicks off what he dubs in his introduction an “Everything Scary Story” (inspired by eating an everything bagel) for middle graders and their parents, “who read my books when they were kids!” He throws in a cheery evil laugh—“Mmmmwahahaha…!”—before launching into a four-part story that packs a creepy old house just off Cthulhu Street that serves as the main setting with all the stuff of nightmares from his considerable arsenal. In short chapters alternating between two equally surreal storylines that may each be a dream of the other, he chucks in an impressive array of disquieting tropes and elements—ranging from spooky creaks and howls to purple worms emerging from noses, a mom who sells crocheted body parts online, teachers in “weird animal masks,” and classics like evil toys and an ominous message scrawled in blood. Even though the point-of-view characters are in a constant state of round-eyed terror, this outing is plainly meant to be in fun, and aside from being splashed with hot green vomit or spending a little time as ventriloquist’s dummies, none of the young people here suffer actual harm from the cascade of supernatural threats, for reasons the author explains at the end. The cast presents white.
Another reliably eerie outing from a master of under-the-sheets reading. (Horror. 9-12)Pub Date: Feb. 17, 2026
ISBN: 9798228588301
Page Count: 214
Publisher: Blackstone
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
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
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