An often lively romp that concludes the adventures of Lucy and her ever-present phantom friend.
A ghost story for middle-grade readers about a young girl and an unlikely crew hunting for a centuries-old pirate’s treasure.
Retired teacher Mair (The Ghost of Mad Jack Halloran, 2013, etc.) delivers the final part of a trilogy chronicling the ghost pirate’s haunting of 14-year-old English girl Lucy Roberts. Mad Jack Halloran and his wife, Sarah, are stuck in limbo as ghosts because Jack’s vast fortune, left in Singapore a century ago, still needs to be returned to its owner. Jack trails his host, Lucy, to school, and soon she has to cover up for the blunders of a ghost who’s more dopey than dastardly. She enlists her uncle Harry, an inspector who previously conjured Jack’s ghost with an incantation, to help find Jack’s treasure. But Mair quickly complicates matters: Before, Jack only bothered Lucy and her family, but now everyday people can sometimes see and hear him. When Uncle Harry, Lucy and her snarky best friend, Alison, board a flight to Singapore, Jack is terrified: “One look out of the window and Jack went deathly pale (which is quite an achievement for a ghost).” Panic ensues, and Harry, Lucy and Alison get deported as soon as they land. Back in England, a coincidence leads the gang to Master Chang, overseer of Jack’s fortune in Singapore, who can settle their debts and finally release the ghost couple from their curse. At its best, this is a spirited tale that delights in the absurd. However, there are some inconsistencies in the story’s supernatural setup, especially regarding Jack and Sarah’s seemingly arbitrary visibility. The book’s target audience of tweens likely won’t mind some of the story’s obvious plot twists and heavy-handed foreshadowing, but its eye-rolling jokes and overemphasized angst sometimes slow the story down.
An often lively romp that concludes the adventures of Lucy and her ever-present phantom friend.Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2014
ISBN: 978-1492977223
Page Count: 226
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A fun, beautifully illustrated, and heartfelt animal tale.
An adventurous puppy gets lost in this picture book.
A young labradoodle excitedly wakes on “puppy pickup day,” when he and his fellow canines will be chosen by their forever families. As they play outside, the pup struggles; he can’t catch a ball and falls off the slide. Discouraged, he follows two rabbits under the fence, soon discovering he’s lost. He declares: “I must get back, I cannot stay. Today is puppy pickup day!” The pup asks various animals how to find his cohorts. Eevee the cat directs via riddle: “Through the tall grass…and over the hill, you will find a stream and a bullfrog named Bill.” He is eventually helped by Abra, a large dog friend. The pup is nervous to finally meet his new humans. Will they accept a clumsy, tiny dog? When they arrive, it’s clear that Nana, Grandpa, and their grandkids love him. They name him Brady, and everyone smiles on the drive home. The text has a jaunty rhyme scheme. Cox (Little Labradoodle & Friends Coloring and Activity Book, 2018, etc.) employs repetitious lines, making this a fine choice for emerging readers. Smith’s (Meet the Robinsons, 2007, etc.) exceptional, detailed illustrations enhance the story and depict a diverse human cast. Brightly colored and engaging, the images should appeal to animal-loving youngsters following Brady’s escapades. The pictures also provide subtext, showing, for example, that Aunt Nola Doodle, who supervises the pups, is a dog.
A fun, beautifully illustrated, and heartfelt animal tale.Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-73245-664-8
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Little Labradoodle Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An informative environmental tale with a few rough spots.
In this chapter book, a myopic fish gets a pair of glasses, which allows him to become an ambassador on behalf of his species and his reef.
Bad Eyes, a fish with poor eyesight, swims with his school of Manini (also known as surgeonfish) around their home reef in Hawaii. Having bad eyesight is dangerous in this environment because of the many predators that catch and eat Manini. Swimming nearer the surface one day, Bad Eyes encounters humans: a girl, Marsha, exploring the reef with her marine biologist father in a boat. When her glasses fall off, they somehow attach themselves to Bad Eyes. To his amazement, he can now see clearly. Marsha dives in with her snorkeling gear and, miraculously, can talk telepathically to Bad Eyes. She wants to be friends and gives the glasses to him as a gift. Bad Eyes With Glasses—his new name—becomes a protector for his school, negotiating with barracudas, sharks, octopuses, groupers, and other animals; he learns much more about them and passes on important information, such as how to escape a gill net. The assorted reef populations vow to cooperate and protect themselves. Meanwhile, Marsha and her father work to halt human activities like the nets that badly damage fish and reefs. The volume leaves off hinting at more escapades to come. In his children’s book, Golicz (BE ALONE WITH ME, 2016) effectively combines adventure with ecological facts about ocean dwellers. Morey the Eel, for example, explains to Bad Eyes that he lives “by eating you and any fool, weak, or dead fish, snail, crab, lobster, or cucumber” that drifts by. The character of Marsha allows kids to identify with the story—which is never preachy—and think about what they could do to help preserve ocean reefs and wildlife. But dialogue can be stiff (for example, “Marsha, I’m not sure about your feelings, but you are without any danger from a schooling reef fish”), and Bad Eyes’ various encounters are very similar. While the uncredited black-and-white illustrations give the fish expressive faces, they clumsily combine photographs and drawings.
An informative environmental tale with a few rough spots.Pub Date: April 17, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4834-7886-9
Page Count: 82
Publisher: Lulu
Review Posted Online: Oct. 2, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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