A worthwhile if occasionally clumsy children’s mystery for kids and tweens.
In Stim’s (Ivan the Not-So-Terrible, 2013, etc.) latest kids’ book, a 15-year-old thief, a torched houseboat and phone calls from herself are the latest puzzles facing a sharp 12-year-old girl.
Mary Frances “Frankie” Jackson is living for the summer on a Sausalito houseboat with her aunt Roxy (the relationship and Roxy’s surname aren’t made clear in this book, the third in the series). Frankie enjoys her life in California—things got a little dicey back in her native New Jersey—and the wonderfully colorful cast of characters living on the dock. Things get muddled when street-smart teenager Stacy Jones tries to scam donations and steal valuables from dock residents. Afraid “Stacy Lacey”—a star pitcher with a murky back story—will get her unjustly mixed up in another criminal case, Frankie and her K9-dropout German shepherd, Butch, track down the teen. After recovering a stolen pin, Frankie enlists Stacy to partner with her in a pitching contest tied to the reality show that followed a baseball star to Sausalito. Giants left fielder Ricky “The Chipmunk” Chimunsky plans to fill a berth on the dock with a mammoth houseboat for his supermodel girlfriend, upsetting the residents. That situation gets complicated when the existing houseboat at the berth suspiciously burns up in a fire; bizarrely, a caller claiming to be Frankie is the one who alerts her. Unfortunately, Frankie seems to solve little of this swirl of Marin County mystery, because other characters handle the big issues, as if the Hardy Boys did all the detecting but a chum actually cracked the case. This isn’t the narrative’s only misstep. Frankie’s constant references to her boat as a “house-boot”—an inside joke referencing Roxy’s French accent—get cloying quickly. Frankie also dots her narration with charming but inane court-ordered essays on what she’s learned, which do little to advance the plot. Despite these issues, the book features believable, amusingly insightful narration by its 12-year-old star, and it balances its drama—including youth in dangerous situations—perfectly between having a bite and being appropriate for young readers. Stim also handles the reality show well despite it feeling a little gimmicky; then again, those things are ubiquitous these days.
A worthwhile if occasionally clumsy children’s mystery for kids and tweens.Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-0988809659
Page Count: 308
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 19, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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