Tasty, bite-sized bizarreness for brave preteens.
A collection of curious incidents—13, naturally—for unsuspecting readers.
A friend mysteriously vanishes. A kid runs into the devil on the way to school. The figures on a street sign change places. A stain on the school cafeteria’s floor is more than just a stain—it has a mouth. A straight-laced teacher gets a creative form of discipline for her “problematic” classroom-management style. Paper-towel dispensers produce ominous messages. Someone’s missing marker is used to make art that brings to life a new invasive species. Even the shadows get bad ideas. For everything, there’s a price or a consequence. Which kids can beat the odds and figure out a way for their lives to go back to normal? Or, is normal the real myth in this wondrously eerie world? Allen’s debut is mostly plot-focused, a quick (but not too quick) relay race from story to story—the longest of which spans 15 pages. Mostly creepy instead of bone-chillingly terrifying, the collection’s overall tone is more Twilight Zone than Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark. It’s also a textbook example of how horror contextualizes social anxieties, particularly those relevant to school-aged youth. Coleman mixes hand lettering with scratchy, sketchy linework to create single- or double-page black-and-white illustrations that accentuate each story. With a lack of racial descriptors, the cast presumes a white default.
Tasty, bite-sized bizarreness for brave preteens. (Horror. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4366-6
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
Pratchett-like worldbuilding centers immigrant kids in a story filled with culture, humor, and heart.
At home in Haiti, 10-year-old Gabrielle Marie Jean loves the rain, scary stories, beating the boys in mango-eating contests, and her family, most of all.
When her parents’ paperwork issues mean she must immigrate to the United States alone, every heavenly thing she believes about America can’t outweigh the sense of dread she feels in leaving everything she knows behind. A preternaturally sensitive child, Gabrielle feels responsible for not only her own success, but her whole family’s, so the stakes of moving in with her uncle, aunt, and cousins in Brooklyn are high—even before Lady Lydia, a witch, tries to steal her essence. Lydia makes her an offer she can’t refuse: achieving assimilation. Arnold skillfully fuses distinct immigrant experiences with the supernatural to express a universally felt desire for belonging. Gabrielle desperately wants to fit in despite the xenophobia she experiences every day and despite making new, accepting friends in Mexican American Carmen and Rocky the talking rat-rabbit. But in trying to change herself, Gabrielle risks giving Lydia the power to conquer Brooklyn. Gabrielle is a charming narrator, and of course, good guy (girl) magic wins out in the end, but the threat to immigrant lives and identities is presented poignantly nonetheless in this richly imaginative origin story of one Haitian American girl that offers a fantastical take on immigrant narratives.
Pratchett-like worldbuilding centers immigrant kids in a story filled with culture, humor, and heart. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-358-27275-5
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Versify/HMH
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
Kids tackle problems both supernatural and real in this atmospheric story.
During a summer in coastal Maine, the kids of Spruce Point work to break a ghostly curse and save a family inn.
The Home Away Inn has been in 12-year-old Parker Emerton’s family for generations, and he wants to keep it that way, but unlucky occurrences mean money is tight, and Parker’s parents are contemplating selling. He worries about having to leave this place he loves. Along with his younger sister, Bailey; two cousins; and summer friend Frankie, Parker is convinced that a ghost has placed a curse on the place. The kids also suspect grouchy neighbor Mrs. Gruvlig of being a witch. In seeking to contact the ghost and investigate suspected supernatural phenomena, the kids end up solving some of the inn’s problems—just not the way they expected. Most of the phenomena turn out to have rational causes, but a bright green flashing light remains unexplained. The strange happenings draw television ghost hunters to Spruce Point, guaranteeing full rooms at the inn. This is a well-paced mystery with a strong sense of place and solidly developed, realistic relationships. Siblings, cousins, and friends work together closely—they have a high degree of independence but do not lack parental oversight. Parker is adopted, and his school counselor believes he has obsessive tendencies; these facts come up in passing. Main characters default to White.
Kids tackle problems both supernatural and real in this atmospheric story. (Mystery. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5344-8611-9
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
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