A slight mystery casts a shadow over New Amity.
Sarah and Lizzie are 11-year-old BFFs in a small New Hampshire town where Lizzie’s family owns an orchard. This summer, to their great delight, they get to run the ice cream stand. If they net $5,000, they will have enough money for their dream: a Halloween zombie hayride. Things start to go awry for Sarah when twins Peter and Olive show up and join the formerly two-person team. Sarah frets constantly that Lizzie will no longer be her friend; sharing is an unwelcome thought. Then a crisis occurs when the ice cream earnings disappear from the safe. Atwood characterizes her cast with descriptive but underdeveloped diversity. Sarah’s grandparents are from Iran, and she has “beige-brown skin.” Lizzie has “pale skin.” The twins have “huge brown eyes, medium-dark-brown skin, and curly hair,” and their two dads are Mr. and Mr. Wu. The whole town is something of a multicultural Platonic ideal. Hakeem observes Ramadan, and Aaron wears an apron that reads “KISS ME, I’M JEWISH.” Sveta and Dani Alvarez are a local power couple. None of the children use cellphones or computers. Readers may very well ponder why a town that holds Sunday morning Community Spirit meetings is so gung-ho to finance a Halloween activity and not a worthy cause. Digitized line drawings introduce each chapter in this first of a series for each season.
Enjoy a scoop of ice cream instead. (Fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: May 2, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-9047-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
Categories: CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
Categories: CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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A modern Sherlock Holmes retelling brings an 11-year-old black John Watson into the sphere of know-it-all 9-year-old white detective Shelby Holmes.
John's an Army brat who's lived in four states already. Now, with his parents' divorce still fresh, the boy who's lived only on military bases must explore the wilds of Harlem. His new life in 221A Baker St. begins inauspiciously, as before he's even finished moving in, his frizzy-haired neighbor blows something up: "BOOM!" But John's great at making friends, and Shelby certainly seems like an interesting kid to know. Oddly loquacious, brusque, and extremely observant, Shelby's locally famous for solving mysteries. John’s swept up in her detecting when a wealthy, brown-skinned classmate enlists their help in the mysterious disappearance of her beloved show dog, Daisy. Whatever could have happened to the prizewinning Cavalier King Charles spaniel? Has she been swiped by a jealous competitor? Has Daisy’s trainer—mysteriously come into enough money to take a secret weekend in Cozumel—been placing bets against his own dog? Brisk pacing, likable characters, a few silly Holmes jokes ("I'm Petunia Cumberbatch," says Shelby while undercover), and a diverse neighborhood, carefully and realistically described by John, are ingredients for success.
A smart, fresh take on an old favorite makes for a terrific series kickoff . (Mystery. 9-11)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-68119-051-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
Categories: CHILDREN'S MYSTERY & THRILLER | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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