A patchwork outing thicker of agenda than atmosphere and likely to prompt, title notwithstanding, a few mild snickers and...
What better place to haunt than a bookstore specializing in occult subjects and run by an ex-magician?
Pale and solitary in the wake of a terrible car accident, voracious reader Billy Shivers finds an awesome trove of the ghost stories he loves in the Haunted House of Books, presided over by Rexford Rapscallion—whose wolfish grin and mad laugh conceal a gentle heart embittered by the slings and arrows of punk teen vandals and other nonreaders. Ultimately Rapscallion challenges a group of said aliterates (who bear names like “Wilson Dirtbag” and “Lenore Gas”) to sit through a reading of a newly discovered tale co-authored by Mary Shelley and John Polidori. When the story itself leaves them, predictably, bored and uncomprehending, spectral agents in the shop step in to deliver whispered rebukes that send the thoroughly stereotyped ingrates screaming out into the dark and stormy night. Kerr never relates that (fictional) story, but he does insert five original spooky tales, along with lengthy rhymed rants about kids today and the benefits of frightening them. He also fills out the narrative with many digs at nonreaders (also lawyers and librarians), plus so-clever comments about the doorstoppers of author “Esteban Rex” (get it?) and other veiled literary references.
A patchwork outing thicker of agenda than atmosphere and likely to prompt, title notwithstanding, a few mild snickers and chills. (author’s note) (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-553-52209-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
Dollops of history and mystery, plus gross to wickedly barbed comical set pieces set in a talky, ambling, amiable odyssey.
The chase after a serial killer sparks an eventful, if not particularly life-changing, road trip in this sequel to the Newbery-winning Dead End in Norvelt (2011).
Following the poisoning of yet another old lady (see previous episode), 12-year-old Jack—aka “Gantos boy”—finds himself drafted to squire his crusty, arthritic neighbor Miss Volker from Pennsylvania to Florida. The ostensible mission? To kill her lifelong would-be beau and chief suspect, Edwin Spizz. Gantos (the author) displays a dab hand at crafting witty one-liners (“Honestly, without guns how do you think old ladies ever get kissed?”) and hilariously improbable situations. He also seems determined to jam in as many references to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Moby-Dick and other classics as possible, along with Miss Volker’s lectures on topics from Anne Hutchinson and the Puritans to Norvelt’s founder, Eleanor Roosevelt, and FDR’s infidelities. Jack (the boy) may drive the car on the journey, but it’s the interactions and back stories of Miss Volker, Spizz and other adults that drive the story itself to its drolly gothic denouement. This occurs in a Miami funeral home, leaving Jack (the boy) perhaps not far from where Jack (the author)’s earlier semifictional avatar, Jack Henry (Heads or Tails, 1994, etc.), resides.
Dollops of history and mystery, plus gross to wickedly barbed comical set pieces set in a talky, ambling, amiable odyssey. (Historical fiction. 11-13)Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-374-37994-0
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Joyless, juiceless, predictable.
Internal dissension, security leaks and attacks from a much larger rival add up to disaster for the orphanage-cum–spy school introduced in Playing with Fire (2013).
The Merry Sunshine Orphanage, now the school for Systematic Protection, Intelligence & Espionage Services, can’t catch a break. Money is tight, a nosy inspector from the Ministry of Health is threatening to close the facility down, and LOTUS, the school’s huge and well-heeled nemesis, is somehow finding out about and spoiling every mission. The prospect of more foster-home misery is a downer for lead spy kid Max, but that’s not all. He’s not only subject to constant put-downs from bullying schoolmate Nikki, but also tortured by conflicting feelings for his father, a spy who disappeared years ago but is now repeatedly popping into view at inconvenient times to deliver vague pleas or warnings. Hale is usually good at keeping things light, but here, the banter just comes off as bickering, and the jokes fall flat. So does the plot, which strings together lengthy chases with labored Mission Impossible–style exploits, features a “mole” whose identity is obvious from the outset and ends with a cliffhanger that doesn’t feel earned. Where’s Chet Gecko when you need him?
Joyless, juiceless, predictable. (Thriller. 11-13)Pub Date: June 24, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-6851-5
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2014
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