Animal lovers transitioning from middle grade to YA will find a lot to enjoy here.
Kid detectives find themselves mixed up in 10 interconnected mysteries.
Native Briton Kat Wolfe and her American friend, Harper Lamb, daughters of a veterinarian and a paleontologist, respectively, feel fully equipped to take on a mystery or two—after all, they’ve done it before (Kat Wolfe Investigates, 2018). But this new one proves to be a little more complicated—they count at least 10, many pertaining to endangered and extinct (and maybe fantastical) creatures, from bluefin tunas to dinosaurs. Is the new fossil unearthed in their Dorset, England, town a dinosaur or a dragon? Why are two Hollywood stars interested in it, and why won’t they pay Kat for all the petsitting she’s doing for their Pomeranian? What might Kat’s grandfather, Britain’s minister of defense, have to do with it all? Amazingly, all 10 mysteries do intertwine, though it takes some extraordinary strokes of luck along with Kat’s commendable sleuthing skills. St John makes some missteps with the American characters, using a lot more British language patterns and words than seems plausible for people who didn’t grow up there. Adult characters are silly enough that the kids get to be the heroes of the story, but they’re not so buffoonish that they’ll insult the intelligence of the characters or readers. Kat presents white while brown-skinned Harper is of Cuban descent, and their community reflects a vigorously diverse England.
Animal lovers transitioning from middle grade to YA will find a lot to enjoy here. (Mystery. 10-14)Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-374-30961-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense.
In the midst of political turmoil, how do you escape the only country that you’ve ever known and navigate a new life? Parallel stories of three different middle school–aged refugees—Josef from Nazi Germany in 1938, Isabel from 1994 Cuba, and Mahmoud from 2015 Aleppo—eventually intertwine for maximum impact.
Three countries, three time periods, three brave protagonists. Yet these three refugee odysseys have so much in common. Each traverses a landscape ruled by a dictator and must balance freedom, family, and responsibility. Each initially leaves by boat, struggles between visibility and invisibility, copes with repeated obstacles and heart-wrenching loss, and gains resilience in the process. Each third-person narrative offers an accessible look at migration under duress, in which the behavior of familiar adults changes unpredictably, strangers exploit the vulnerabilities of transients, and circumstances seem driven by random luck. Mahmoud eventually concludes that visibility is best: “See us….Hear us. Help us.” With this book, Gratz accomplishes a feat that is nothing short of brilliant, offering a skillfully wrought narrative laced with global and intergenerational reverberations that signal hope for the future. Excellent for older middle grade and above in classrooms, book groups, and/or communities looking to increase empathy for new and existing arrivals from afar.
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense. (maps, author’s note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: July 25, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-88083-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
PROFILES
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride.
Zipping back and forth in time atop outsized robo–bell bottoms, mad inventor Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) legs his way to center stage in this slightly less-labored continuation of episode 9.
The action commences after a rambling recap and a warning not to laugh or smile on pain of being forced to read Sarah Plain and Tall. Pilkey first sends his peevish protagonist back a short while to save the Earth (destroyed in the previous episode), then on to various prehistoric eras in pursuit of George, Harold and the Captain. It’s all pretty much an excuse for many butt jokes, dashes of off-color humor (“Tippy pressed the button on his Freezy-Beam 4000, causing it to rise from the depths of his Robo-Pants”), a lengthy wordless comic and two tussles in “Flip-o-rama.” Still, the chase kicks off an ice age, the extinction of the dinosaurs and the Big Bang (here the Big “Ka-Bloosh!”). It ends with a harrowing glimpse of what George and Harold would become if they decided to go straight. The author also chucks in a poopy-doo-doo song with musical notation (credited to Albert P. Einstein) and plenty of ink-and-wash cartoon illustrations to crank up the ongoing frenzy.
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-17536-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
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