An inventive and surprisingly coherent mix of monsters, mystery, courtroom drama, and real-life family dynamics.
In book one of a new fantasy series for middle schoolers, a boy’s sour perspective on life changes during an unexpected encounter with giants, dragons, trolls, and other mythical creatures.
Mom is on a prolonged sales trip in China; Dad is deployed to the Middle East; and Brodie Adkins, age 12 and angry about his parents’ divorce, has been sent to Key West, Florida, to spend the summer with an uncle he’s never met. After Brodie’s plane lands, he is whisked away by a troll cabbie to Monstrovia, a “crazy place not on any map of Florida, the United States or the World.” Uncle Jasper turns out to be a lawyer famous for defending “Monsters, Fictional Folk, etc.” who counts Dracula among his clients and drives a dragon with a bathtub sidecar. Brodie hangs on to his skepticism and keeps his emotional distance until he is caught up in the case of Jack, accused of murdering a giant and stealing certain precious items. Jack’s sister insists he’s innocent, but it doesn’t bode well that the judge and jury are giants. The author deftly weaves these “Jack and the Beanstalk” elements into a parallel world where pixies are pesky reporters, the district attorney is a 14-foot-tall Perry Mason look-alike, the goose with the golden eggs takes the stand, and Jack’s missing father and mother become keys to the verdict. As Brodie becomes invested in the outcome, he puts aside his own grievances and fears (although he’s still not crazy about the giant spiders), assists his uncle in court, and begins to understand the roots of his own anger and mistrust. That the summer will be a life-changer for the troubled youth isn’t hard to predict, but Newhouse (A Bite Before Christmas, 2016, etc.) goes about it with imagination, humor—often the mild, gross-out kind—and a solid awareness of challenges faced by many young adolescents, while avoiding cloying plot strands. How affirmation and positive reinforcement can effect change may be the unsubtle takeaway here, but the author, a former educator, delivers it with informed empathy and gleeful wit.
An inventive and surprisingly coherent mix of monsters, mystery, courtroom drama, and real-life family dynamics.Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-692-51895-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Aim-Hi Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
What if the market was closed when you wanted to bake a pie? You could embark for Europe, learn Italian en route, and pick up some semolina wheat in Italy, an egg in France, kurundu bark for cinnamon in Sri Lanka, and an entire cow in England (butter) before coming home via Jamaica (sugar) and Vermont (apples). The expertly designed illustrations in which a dark-haired lass journeys by various means to these interesting places to get her groceries are lovely and lively, and the narrative, too, travels at a spritely pace. The journey is neither quite logical enough to be truly informative nor quite bizarre enough to be satisfyingly silly, while the rich, sweet recipe that's appended will take some adult assistance. Still, fun. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: May 2, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-83705-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1994
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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