A summer sleuth story that disappoints.
Fifteen-year-old Nate Crocker has his wallet stolen by someone dressed as Ludwig von Beethoven in the courtyard of a luxury building in Vancouver, British Columbia.
As consolation, he is invited to be the building’s resident pianist by the smarmy owner. Nate uses his access to the building to snoop around to find the thief, teaming up with another victim, Zandi Singh, who protests there daily against gentrification and housing displacement caused by the building’s construction. Nate also befriends a boy with autism who loves his music. Over time his impressions of his boss change as his boss expresses derogatory opinions about people with disabilities and Nate comes to understand his exploitation of people displaced by his business activities. Jackson’s book is fast paced, something accentuated by Nate’s nonlinear thought processes. He jumps from idea to idea with little explanation as to how he arrived at each conclusion. The transitions in the narrative are erratic as well. Jackson’s imagery is confusing, leaving readers unable to conjure up clear visions of the story. While Nate is presented as a promising musician, this element of the story feels underdeveloped, and the cast of secondary characters adds little to the story. A publisher’s note indicates the font was chosen to accommodate readers with dyslexia. Nate and most other characters are assumed to be White; Zandi’s name cues her as South Asian. Unfortunately, a broad generalization about people with autism is not interrogated.
A summer sleuth story that disappoints. (Mystery. 10-12)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-989724-05-7
Page Count: 252
Publisher: Crwth Press
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
Well-worn character types and plot devices may earn the first juvenile title in Amazon’s new line of imports a little traction with fans of Cornelia Funke’s mysteries. Quintessentially meek orphan Darius Dorian looks upon an assignment to shadow violin-maker Archibald Archinola for two weeks as a welcome chance to escape his orphanage roommate’s bullying. Then Darius discovers that plucking a certain old violin in Archinola’s shop causes any wound or illness to disappear. He steals the violin and is subsequently kidnapped by a doltish con man and his termagant mother, who force his assistance as they set themselves up as miracle healers. Along with a relentlessly two-dimensional bully, Reh trots in a supporting cast led by Darius’ new Asian friend Mey-Mey (“the outer corners of her eyes bend upwards like the corners of a smiling mouth”), sets up a budding romance between the stuffy-but-decent Archinola and a local jeweler and ultimately sends the con artists packing. Despite potentially confusing bits—from repeatedly-mentioned “brown patches” on Mey-Mey’s neck and hand that turn out to be calluses rather than birthmarks to everyone’s sudden and inexplicable loss of interest in the violin’s magic at the end—the tale’s steady predictability will keep less-demanding readers engaged. (Fantasy. 10-12)
Pub Date: Feb. 8, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-61109-004-8
Page Count: 132
Publisher: Amazon Crossing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2011
Sketchy infodumps and plotting leave fancy packaging to carry the load in this elaborately decorated journal.
Impelled by a request delivered by a cat, 13-year-old orphan Abigail compiles information on 15 probably mythical beasts, from mermaids and sea monsters to bunyips, barguests and Bigfoot. Meanwhile she also records incidents in a largely unhappy life—cloistered at home by a tyrannical grandfather and afflicted at her small-town school by bullies and cliques alike. Framed as a diary that fills every square inch including the endpapers, her narrative is presented on swatches of paper interspersed with a mix of dramatic full-page creature portraits, smaller images of old prints and supplementary drawings. These last are in a more informal style, and all are neatly applied over backgrounds pre-brushed with rich colors. Her “reports” run to only a few short comments or quotes (capped at the end by a stale booklist and a more helpful set of websites). Her personal miseries are abruptly resolved by a miraculous pendant and the revelation—quickly laid out at the end and reading more like a draft scenario—that the mythical creatures are real and there’s a struggle going on between those who would hide them and others who want them exposed.
Pub Date: July 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-57091-718-9
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2011
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