Fun and engaging historical intrigue.
In late 1970s Philadelphia, a lonely preteen finds a 200-year-old letter and uncovers a Revolutionary War–era secret.
At nearly 12, Theodora “Thunder” Underwood is used to being alone. Every summer, while her scientist parents travel for research, she’s shipped off to a different relative or professor friend of theirs, and every summer, she feels out of place and in the way. But when she arrives in Philadelphia to stay with eccentric Aunt Hazel at her historic mansion, Mount Pleasant, Thunder dreams of making a discovery that will put her on the path to becoming a historian. On her very first day there, she finds, hidden in the floorboards, a letter written in 1780 by a previous inhabitant, one 11-year-old Miss Margaret Percy, who goes by Mercy. Suddenly, Thunder is swept up into a story of intrigue, treason, spies, and daring escapes. The letter references Mercy’s journal, concealed somewhere within Mount Pleasant, which may hold the key to momentous events. But in order to find the journal and solve the puzzle, Thunder will have to do something she’s never done before: trust new friends. An adventure in the vein of Varian Johnson’s The Parker Inheritance and Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin’s The Bletchley Riddle, this novel has strong secondary characters and a well-established setting that carry it through the slow parts of the plot. Except for an enslaved historical character, the main cast presents white.
Fun and engaging historical intrigue. (historical notes) (Historical mystery. 8-13)Pub Date: July 14, 2026
ISBN: 9781635923261
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Calkins Creek/Astra Books for Young Readers
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this...
Sentenced to a brutal juvenile detention camp for a crime he didn't commit, a wimpy teenager turns four generations of bad family luck around in this sunburnt tale of courage, obsession, and buried treasure from Sachar (Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger, 1995, etc.).
Driven mad by the murder of her black beau, a schoolteacher turns on the once-friendly, verdant town of Green Lake, Texas, becomes feared bandit Kissin' Kate Barlow, and dies, laughing, without revealing where she buried her stash. A century of rainless years later, lake and town are memories—but, with the involuntary help of gangs of juvenile offenders, the last descendant of the last residents is still digging. Enter Stanley Yelnats IV, great-grandson of one of Kissin' Kate's victims and the latest to fall to the family curse of being in the wrong place at the wrong time; under the direction of The Warden, a woman with rattlesnake venom polish on her long nails, Stanley and each of his fellow inmates dig a hole a day in the rock-hard lake bed. Weeks of punishing labor later, Stanley digs up a clue, but is canny enough to conceal the information of which hole it came from. Through flashbacks, Sachar weaves a complex net of hidden relationships and well-timed revelations as he puts his slightly larger-than-life characters under a sun so punishing that readers will be reaching for water bottles.
Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this rugged, engrossing adventure. (Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 978-0-374-33265-5
Page Count: 233
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2000
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BOOK TO SCREEN
An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel.
Sandy and his family, Japanese Canadians, experience hatred and incarceration during World War II.
Sandy Saito loves baseball, and the Vancouver Asahi ballplayers are his heroes. But when they lose in the 1941 semifinals, Sandy’s dad calls it a bad omen. Sure enough, in December 1941, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor in the U.S. The Canadian government begins to ban Japanese people from certain areas, moving them to “dormitories” and setting a curfew. Sandy wants to spend time with his father, but as a doctor, his dad is busy, often sneaking out past curfew to work. One night Papa is taken to “where he [is] needed most,” and the family is forced into an internment camp. Life at the camp isn’t easy, and even with some of the Asahi players playing ball there, it just isn’t the same. Trying to understand and find joy again, Sandy struggles with his new reality and relationship with his father. Based on the true experiences of Japanese Canadians and the Vancouver Asahi team, this graphic novel is a glimpse of how their lives were affected by WWII. The end is a bit abrupt, but it’s still an inspiring and sweet look at how baseball helped them through hardship. The illustrations are all in a sepia tone, giving it an antique look and conveying the emotions and struggles. None of the illustrations of their experiences are overly graphic, making it a good introduction to this upsetting topic for middle-grade readers.
An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel. (afterword, further resources) (Graphic historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5253-0334-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
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