A wildly imaginative, richly textured, and complex fantasy.
An insecure young girl’s quest for her missing mother leads her to Dreamlands, a parallel world of incredible dreams, dark nightmares, and dangerous deceptions.
An “uncommon-looking twelve-year-old girl” with silver-blonde hair and amber eyes, Nell Perkins is able to see truths others ignore. After three local women mysteriously disappear, Nell insists they’ve been stolen by an ominous purple cloud. Then she witnesses the cloud sweeping her mother, Rose, away, leaving behind a small golden bird that Nell realizes is really Rose transformed. Determined to save Rose, Nell encounters Duke Badger, a Fearless Traveler, sworn to help those journeying to Dreamlands. Badger explains that Rose and the other missing women have been changed into birds by the Dark Daughters, “an ancient tribe of Nightmares.” Only Ravenhead, an endangered Dreamer, can change Rose back to human form. With Badger as her remarkable guide, Nell embarks on a perilous quest to the Wicked Places, traversing surreal landscapes and confronting bizarre creatures, hoping against the odds to outmaneuver the Dark Daughters and save her mother. Throughout the relentlessly paced, endlessly twisting plot, remarkable Nell emerges a “fearless traveler” in her own right. Though race is referred to, the book’s default is white.
A wildly imaginative, richly textured, and complex fantasy. (map) (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62370-799-6
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Capstone Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Twenty-four short chapters move along at a clip to satisfy mystery fans, with plenty of red herrings and real clues...
What would (fictional) Sam Solomon do? Charlie Collier, “weight-challenged” sixth-grade private eye, asks that question whenever he is faced with a dilemma.
Charlie, along with sidekicks Henry and Scarlett solve cases large and small—from figuring out how to retrieve a tennis ball lost down a hole to capturing a serial burglar. This time, Charlie nearly misses out on the case because he gets roped into playing the lead in the class play opposite Scarlett, who still has little romantic use for him. When Charlie notices a connection between the burglaries and the re-released Sam Solomon radio dramas, he opens his business again, against his father’s orders. Even his eccentric cryptographer grandmother, who shares the investigator gene with her grandson, makes it clear that this case is too dangerous. Only Charlie’s encyclopedic knowledge of the Sam Solomon episodes—and his science teacher’s frequent brainteasers—can save the day. A few missteps (it’s hard to believe a bakery or a pet store would have more than $2,000 in the overnight till or that the thin boy on the cover is Charlie) take away from the action, but true fans will ignore them.
Twenty-four short chapters move along at a clip to satisfy mystery fans, with plenty of red herrings and real clues sprinkled along the way. (Mystery. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-399-16256-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
A solid, somber dramatization of a real-life medical mystery.
A scrawny 12-year-old orphan named Eel changes history when he helps famous epidemiologist Dr. John Snow identify the source of a cholera outbreak in the streets of 1854 London.
It’s a vile summer in the city: “hot in a thick, wet sort of way, as if the sun were a giant who’d aimed his moist, stinky breath on us all.” Chillingly, the Broad Street pump, popular for its cleaner-tasting water, is dispensing cholera with every push of the handle. The Broad Street pump story is a true one, and Hopkinson methodically chronicles the role of Dr. Snow in linking the “blue death” to London’s water supply. It’s impossible not to like the fictional Eel, who tells the tale in journal form from a first-person point of view, with a convincingly childcentric focus on lovable pets, lemon ice, trust and justice. Eel is a hard-edged softie who rescues drowning cats, tends to Dr. Snow’s test animals, hides his little brother from their malevolent stepfather at great personal cost and ultimately helps solve the cholera mystery. Rough types such as Thumbless Jake and Nasty Ned pop up like cartoon villains, but Eel proves too slippery for them, and plenty of best-of-times goodness shines from the murk.
A solid, somber dramatization of a real-life medical mystery. (epilogue, author’s note, timeline, bibliography, acknowledgments) (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-375-84818-6
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2013
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