A warm, twisty mystery in which family, heritage, and courage take flight.
Four cousins team up to solve a mystery.
Twelve-year-old Nico Paz-Murcia and his younger sister, Tessa, can’t wait for their American cousins, Emilio and Jackie Murcia-Palacios, to visit them in Honduras. The four easily slip back into their old rhythm, even as Nico and Tessa quietly navigate their parents’ recent separation. They’re hosting eight scarlet macaws who were temporarily displaced after a flood at a nearby bird sanctuary. The siblings’ mother, an archaeologist, plans to release the macaws at her Mayan dig site at Copán, helping restore the species to an area where it once thrived. When the birds suddenly disappear from their enclosures, suspicion falls on nearly everyone connected to the project. The cousins launch their own investigation, uncovering a trail of clues that raises as many questions as it answers. As they close in on the truth, they discover unexpected layers in the adults around them—and in one another. This engaging mystery blends family dynamics, conservation, and cultural heritage, offering readers a thoughtful look at the complexity of human motives. The tension remains gentle, avoiding frightening peril and making it an ideal choice for readers who enjoy whodunits without the genre’s darker aspects.
A warm, twisty mystery in which family, heritage, and courage take flight. (author’s note) (Mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: March 10, 2026
ISBN: 9780593488744
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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
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