The enterprising young muckrakers who barely made their way out of Deep Doo-Doo (1996) once again find themselves ankle deep in local politics. When a pumpkin appears atop City Hall’s flagpole, stuttering electronics wiz Bennet and his glib sidekick, Pete, rush to post the story on their Deep Doo-Doo Web site—only to find that they’ve been scooped by journalistic arch-rival Elizabeth, editor of the school paper, The Purple Patch. When the town paper offers $500 for the prankster’s identity, the three start digging—separately at first, then, with utmost reluctance, together. The plot thickens with the arrival of coded e-mail from someone offering to trade clues for a Dracula mask that figured prominently in the first episode (and which later turns up on E-bay). Even better, there’s the discovery of an old college-yearbook photo of mayoral candidate Robert Abbott (who is running a character-based campaign) streaking. As it turns out, Abbott, e-mailer, and pumpkin are all connected—not in particularly believable ways, but the young sleuths supply enough competition (becoming cooperation, and even friendship, by the end), reckless pursuit of the story, and clever deduction to keep the ball rolling. They win the reward too, forcing Abbott into a public confession that actually helps his campaign by convincing voters that he’s not such a stick in the, er, mud. A contrived but entertaining whodunit. (Fiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-525-46530-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Who is next in the ocean food chain? Pallotta has a surprising answer in this picture book glimpse of one curious boy. Danny, fascinated by plankton, takes his dory and rows out into the ocean, where he sees shrimp eating those plankton, fish sand eels eating shrimp, mackerel eating fish sand eels, bluefish chasing mackerel, tuna after bluefish, and killer whales after tuna. When an enormous humpbacked whale arrives on the scene, Danny’s dory tips over and he has to swim for a large rock or become—he worries’someone’s lunch. Surreal acrylic illustrations in vivid blues and red extend the story of a small boy, a small boat, and a vast ocean, in which the laws of the food chain are paramount. That the boy has been bathtub-bound during this entire imaginative foray doesn’t diminish the suspense, and the facts Pallotta presents are solidly researched. A charming fish tale about the one—the boy—that got away. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-88106-075-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
In an entry in the Turning Point Inventions series, Wallace invites readers to consider the drawbacks of earlier forms of artificial daylight, from wooden torches to arc lamps, then retraces Thomas Edison’s intense, deliberate search for a practical electric light. Edison, inspired by a book of science experiments to become an inventor, combined a searching intellect with bulldog stubbornness, and can be credited not just with the light bulb itself, but also with the far more difficult accomplishment of engineering public acceptance of electricity in order to create a market for his invention. As much a readable character portrait as it is an account of the origin of a now-ubiquitous widget, Wallace’s book is generously illustrated with contemporary black- and-white and full-color photographs and views, and capped by a fold-out look at a lightbulb’s parts and assembly. Illuminating, of course. (bibliography, index) (Biography. 9-11)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-689-82816-0
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
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