Both an enticing mystery and a satisfying emotional journey.
A game night provides an avenue for pushing past social anxiety.
Amy would much prefer to be nose-deep in a good detective novel than socializing with her peers. Although she and her therapist work on strategies to help her calm down in panic-inducing situations and to step out of her comfort zone, things like class presentations send her spiraling. So she’s surprised when classmate Reagan invites her to a murder mystery–themed birthday party with three other schoolmates. As the game begins, Amy finds freedom in the detective work and in her assigned character, scientist Millie Morgan (“If I mess up or act weird, it can just be part of Millie’s storyline,” she reasons). As the group looks for clues, Amy speaks up and finds herself leading the investigation. Though the experience isn’t without its challenges, it’s ultimately positive and rings true, and Evans realistically conveys Amy’s anxiety symptoms. And readers will have a blast solving the mystery. Reminiscent of Raina Telgemeier’s or Remy Lai’s work, Bell’s cartoon illustrations establish the mood effectively. The costumes, palette, and setting fluctuate; when the game’s on, Amy and the other girls resemble their characters and seem to truly be exploring an old-timey manor. Panel backgrounds turn gray when Amy’s thoughts become overwhelming. The party guests are a sympathetic bunch and easily accept Amy’s sharing of her diagnosis. Amy has pale skin and black hair; the other kids vary in skin tone.
Both an enticing mystery and a satisfying emotional journey. (Graphic mystery. 8-13)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9780063282483
Page Count: 208
Publisher: HarperAlley
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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