Fast-paced and enjoyable.
In the small town of Groveview, Ohio, two 12-year-olds solve a mystery.
Colin’s and Nevaeh’s families approach the business of material possessions from opposite directions: Colin’s single mom, who’s so minimalist his friends think the family is poor, runs Possession Curation, a company dedicated to helping people declutter their lives. Nevaeh comes from a large, loving family; her father, the self-proclaimed Junk King, never met scrap he wouldn’t keep until he could sell it. One day, Colin finds a box of letters dated 1973-77 and written by someone named Toby to a certain Rosemary hidden in his mother’s client’s attic. In the first letter in the shoebox, Toby pleads with Rosemary not to hate him. Meanwhile, Nevaeh helps her dad open a long-locked self-storage unit and finds it empty when it should have been full of antiques. Gradually, in third-person narratives that alternate between the two White tweens, Colin and Nevaeh meet, become friends, realize that their families share a history, and solve the entwining mystery of their finds. Haddix writes with her usual smooth skill in this series opener, weaving in an interesting theme about possessions and what they mean to different people. Nevaeh longs for Colin’s clean home, while Colin finds persistent beauty in the things his mother discards. Though the mystery they solve relies heavily on coincidence, it’s credible, as are all of Colin’s and Nevaeh’s actions. The characters are real and inviting, and the emotions ring true.
Fast-paced and enjoyable. (author’s note) (Mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-283852-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
A sympathetic, compelling introduction to wolves from the perspective of one wolf and his memorable journey.
Separated from his pack, Swift, a young wolf, embarks on a perilous search for a new home.
Swift’s mother impresses on him early that his “pack belongs to the mountains and the mountains belong to the pack.” His father teaches him to hunt elk, avoid skunks and porcupines, revere the life that gives them life, and “carry on” when their pack is devastated in an attack by enemy wolves. Alone and grieving, Swift reluctantly leaves his mountain home. Crossing into unfamiliar territory, he’s injured and nearly dies, but the need to run, hunt, and live drives him on. Following a routine of “walk-trot-eat-rest,” Swift traverses prairies, canyons, and deserts, encountering men with rifles, hunger, thirst, highways, wild horses, a cougar, and a forest fire. Never imagining the “world could be so big or that I could be so alone in it,” Swift renames himself Wander as he reaches new mountains and finds a new home. Rife with details of the myriad scents, sounds, tastes, touches, and sights in Swift/Wander’s primal existence, the immediacy of his intimate, first-person, present-tense narration proves deeply moving, especially his longing for companionship. Realistic black-and-white illustrations trace key events in this unique survival story, and extensive backmatter fills in further factual information about wolves and their habitat.
A sympathetic, compelling introduction to wolves from the perspective of one wolf and his memorable journey. (additional resources, map) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-289593-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
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