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THE GRAVITY THIEF

A superb young duo leads this smart and consistently diverting fantasy.

Two gifted tweens’ investigation into stolen paintings pits them against a villain constructing a chaos-generating machine in this third installment of a middle-grade series.

Someone has purloined the Vermeer painting The Music Lesson from the Emily Sears Museum in Boston. During her class field trip, 12-year-old Lucy Nightingale lingers at the crime scene and hears a boy crying—a ghost, perhaps. Sounds like a case for SLARP; through Sam and Lucy’s Anomalies Research Project, she and her pal Sam Winter look into “unusual happenings.” Lucy returns to the museum after hours and learns the apparent ghost is Peter, a young boy from the stolen painting. Speaking to other “Visitors” from the museum’s artworks, she decides to recover the work, as without it, Peter’s lamprolite (essentially his life force) will fade quickly. It seems thieves have been regularly taking Vermeer paintings, all for a mastermind who wants the shapes hidden within the art. They’re the key to building a world-changing machine, which the mastermind wants to use for manipulating gravity and sending things, like entire countries, into a black hole. As this villain is associated with the Konference, “a secret society of geniuses” that’s initiating Sam, the tweens have a chance to thwart the evil plan. Lodge’s brisk fantasy is delightful thanks to its two investigating friends. They complement each other—“field agent” Lucy handles physical tasks that “unathletic” Sam avoids—and are never condescending. The story touches on a host of scientific concepts that characters usually comprehensively explain. Moreover, there are intermittent photographs of superlative art—not solely Vermeer’s—along with Hilaire’s bold, colorful, cartoon-style illustrations. Readers new to the series may be taken aback by the abrupt appearances of supernatural elements, from Lucy and Sam’s telepathy to the latter’s asserting that Quetzals, his “super phone” invention, “aren’t dependent on earth technology.” But that should prompt readers’ interest in this series’ preceding installments.

A superb young duo leads this smart and consistently diverting fantasy. (glossary, author bio)

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 230

Publisher: Manuscript

Review Posted Online: July 8, 2020

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FINALLY, SOMETHING MYSTERIOUS

From the One and Onlys series , Vol. 1

Delightful fun for budding mystery fans.

Only children, rejoice! A cozy mystery just for you! (People with siblings will probably enjoy it too.)

Debut novelist Cornett introduces the One and Onlys, a trio of mystery-solving only kids: Gloria Longshanks “Shanks” Hill, Alexander “Peephole” Calloway, and narrator Paul (alas, no nickname) Marconi. The trio has a knack for finding and solving low-level mysteries, but they come up against a true head-scratcher when the yard of a resident of their small town is covered in rubber ducks overnight. Working ahead of Officer Portnoy, who’s a little on the slow side, can Paul, Shanks, and Peephole solve the mystery? Cornett has a lot of fun with this adventure, dropping additional side mysteries, a subplot about small businesses, big corporations, and economics, and a town’s love of bratwurst into the mix. Most importantly, he plays fair with the clues throughout, allowing astute readers to potentially solve the case ahead of the trio. The tone and mystery are perfect for younger readers who want to test their detective skills but are put off by anything scary or gory. The pacing would serve well for chapter-by-chapter read-alouds. If there are any quibbles, it’s the lack of diversity of the cast, as it defaults white. Diversity exists in small towns, and this one is crying out for more. Hopefully a sequel will introduce additional faces.

Delightful fun for budding mystery fans. (Mystery. 8-12)

Pub Date: April 14, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9848-3003-6

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020

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ESCAPE

Thrills galore for gamers willing to go along for the ride.

A new virtual-reality theme park goes haywire on a crowd of young ­­victims, er, visitors in Alexander’s latest screamfest.

Having scored one of just 100 coveted preview tickets to a cutting-edge, kids-only venue dubbed ESCAPE, budding amusement park fan and designer Cody Baxter is looking forward to a life-changing experience. What he gets is more of a life-threatening one, as games and rides with names like Triassic Terror and Haunted Hillside not only pit him against a monster and then zombies—or sometimes a monster and zombies—as well as ruthless competing players, but seem tailored to play on individual personal terrors. And, in some never explained way, the VR quickly turns into real battles that inflict real wounds even as the real settings shift with sudden, dizzying unpredictability. Teaming up with loyal new friends Jayson Torn and Inga Andersdottir, the former described as being Japanese and White and the latter as Norwegian, Cody (who seems to default to White) struggles for survival, learning ultimately that ESCAPE was created by an evil genius with an ulterior motive who is convinced that he can teach children a salutary lesson. The plot’s no more logical in its twists and contrivances than the premise, but the author’s knack for spinning out nightmarish situations is definitely on display here as the tale careens toward a properly lurid outcome.

Thrills galore for gamers willing to go along for the ride. (Light horror. 9-12)

Pub Date: June 7, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-338-26047-2

Page Count: 240

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: March 15, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2022

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