Montes makes a strong debut with this multistranded tale of two orphaned Puerto Ricans whose struggle to cope with being transplanted to northern California is considerably complicated by encounters with ghosts and other supernatural phenomena. Javi is understandably on an emotional sleigh ride. He’s grieving for his parents, feeling fiercely protective of little brother Nico, and surrounded by an often-unfamiliar new world. Furthermore, he’s trying to hold Tití Amparo at arm’s length. She’s a psychology professor who is having a hard time herself adapting to these two new additions to her single household. His worry sharpens when Nico acquires Hamish, an invisible playmate. Imaginary and harmless, Amparo insists, but Javi’s not so sure; there’s something menacing about the surrounding woods, Nico suddenly knows more English than he used to, and just once Javi catches a glimpse in a mirror of a small blond boy in a sailor suit. Then furniture starts moving on its own, faucets are left running, and the lights begin flashing on and off—not Hamish’s doing, Nico claims. While these and other events create mounting suspense, Javi is also trying Amparo’s large but not limitless fund of patience, encountering and responding strongly to prejudiced remarks from both a peer and an adult (a librarian, of all things), and improving his halting English thanks to Willo, a new friend. With Willo’s help, Javi discovers at last that there are two ghosts—a Depression-era child who perished with his brutal kidnapper—plus a poltergeist, created by Javi’s own anger and psychic abilities. The stage is set for a nail-biting rescue when Nico runs off into the storm-swept forest in search of Hamish, and is trapped by the malicious kidnapper’s spirit in an old root cellar. At once a perceptive look at how regional differences in American culture can either mesh or clash, and a rippingly good ghost story, this should find a large and eager audience. (Fiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-15-202391-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There’s nothing exceptional here, but the otherworldly elements and headlong pacing will sweep readers along.
In a second brush with the supernatural (following Henry Hunter and the Beast of Snagov, 2016), brainy young sleuth Henry and his faithful chronicler, Adolphus, are kidnapped by undead pirates. Yo ho ho!
News that a friend’s parents have vanished on a cruise in the Caribbean prompts the dapper kid detective (looking ever natty in suit, tie, and fedora in Tankard’s lavishly detailed drawings) to take a quick sabbatical from St. Grimbold’s School for Extraordinary Boys and fly to Barbados to investigate. Hardly has he begun than an ectoplasmic tentacle grabs him and his sidekick, Dolf—depositing both aboard the spectral ship of Blackbeard himself. The legendary pirate is still around courtesy of a curse laid on a certain bit of booty and, since ghosts can’t hold shovels, bent on collecting hapless tourists to dig up buried treasure. Matthews enthusiastically chucks bits of pirate lore, along with the odd skeleton, map, and treasure chest, into the enterprise, and for additional atmosphere, the illustrator strews margins and corners with bugs, fish, stormy seas, and nautical jetsam. Aside from a “Rastafarian” guide, the entire cast, living and otherwise, is evidently white (and, with one minor exception, male). By the end, the curse is broken, the pirates gone, the captives rescued, and Henry himself mysteriously vanished in the wake of an encounter with merpeople. Stay tuned.
There’s nothing exceptional here, but the otherworldly elements and headlong pacing will sweep readers along. (Fantasy/mystery. 10-12)Pub Date: March 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-51071-039-9
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
A splendid whodunit: cerebral, exhilarating, low in violence, methodical in construction, and occasionally hilarious.
A rash of pranks at an exclusive private school leads two young detectives all the way to the White House.
Ponti positively shovels clues, secrets, coded messages, potential suspects, red herrings, distractions, and side mysteries, not to mention dazzling feats of deduction, into this second caper featuring white middle school sleuth Florian “Young Sherlock” Bates, his tough-minded and often equally acute BF Margaret, and their FBI supervisor, Marcus (both of the latter African-American). Posing as transfer students and enjoined to identify the culprit as circumspectly as possible, Florian and Margaret find their work cut out for them as not only does the school’s headmaster have something to hide, but Lucy Mays, a white girl and the daughter of the president of the U.S., and also widely renowned Chinese musical prodigy Yin Yae are on the list of potential suspects. The stakes rise sky high when Yin vanishes partway through a performance at the Kennedy Center. Is it another prank? A kidnapping? Or is he defecting, with—a diplomatic disaster in the making—Lucy’s help? As in Framed! (2016), fast brain- and footwork saves the day at the last moment, but watching Florian wow everyone, including Lucy’s dad, with Holmes-style connecting of dots along the way is just as satisfying.
A splendid whodunit: cerebral, exhilarating, low in violence, methodical in construction, and occasionally hilarious. (Mystery. 11-13)Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-3633-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: April 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2017
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