At Lauer Middle School, an invitation to join “The Legend,” a supersecret group that plans community-service projects, is the most exciting honor imaginable. Seventh grader Travis Raines isn’t particularly brainy; he excels at getting into innocent trouble. He’s also pretty good at getting out of it. When a shiny blue envelope appears in his locker with a brainteaser and a set of rules, Travis can’t believe The Legend wants him. As usual, he ends up getting in his own way and runs afoul of the vice-principal in charge of discipline. Can he follow all the rules while navigating the seven levels of induction into The Legend and find out who keeps trying to get him in deeper trouble? Feldman’s second puzzlecentric effort is a mixed bag at best (The Gollywhopper Games, 2008). The mostly dull plot hangs on coincidence and isn’t saved by the seemingly random puzzles, some of which are anything but puzzling. Moreover, Travis’s distracting, vigorous and entirely un–seventh grader–like use of the word “oaf” defies credibility. Give your brainteaser fans Carey Benedict’s The Unknowns (2009) instead. (Mystery. 8-11)
Pub Date: June 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-06-195105-3
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2010
Plain-vanilla, middle-American Philip (10) and his divorced mother have lived in L.A. for six months, but Philip still hasn't adjusted—he hates the Mexican food, the smog, his mother's boyfriend Josh, and especially the earthquakes. Bitterly disappointed when a long-awaited trip back to Ohio is canceled, he grudgingly agrees to accompany his mother and Josh on a drive up the coast. Gradually learning to enjoy new experiences—and Josh's company—Philip begins to come to terms with some of the changes in his life. A good first effort—the school scenes ring especially true (the author teaches in L.A.)—that sympathetically captures the ``culture shock'' of relocation and the stubborn misery of the interregnum between loss of the familiar and acceptance of the new, as well as relationships (with a friend, pets, concerned adults) that can ease the transition. (Fiction. 8-11)
Pub Date: April 20, 1993
ISBN: 0-395-62162-3
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1993
Formed over eons by lava boiling up from the sea floor, the rocky Galapagos are inhabited by an odd assortment of plants and animals that have developed peculiar adaptations for survival; e.g., dark-skinned iguanas, able to spend more time in cold water searching for food, ``evolved into a new type of iguana—the marine iguana.'' Crisp, clear close-up photos in full color add to the appeal, but lack captions and scale. An attractive introduction to evolution and to some unusual life forms. Scientific names not given; no index. (Nonfiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: May 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-316-30739-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1991
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