An equally wholesome and amusing tale that celebrates friendship, nature, and curious inquiry.
In this middle-grade novel, a boy works with friends to investigate illegally caught lobsters.
Last September, Berend “Bear” Houtman stayed with his grandmother on Oxbow Island (near Portland, Maine) while he was suspended from sixth grade; he redeemed himself by helping to catch a poacher. This year, with Halloween approaching, Bear has gotten permission to carry out an ocean research project there. He also hopes to build a record-setting pumpkin pyramid, but for both projects, Bear runs into problems figuring out the proper equipment and procedures. For the science part, many recommend he ask Hiram Wiley, a battered old lobsterman and “practically an oceanographer.” But Bear feels uncomfortable around Hiram after he warned Bear about an especially large lobster claw he’d found: “Never tell anyone about that. Never. Do you hear me?” But more claws from lobsters that should have been thrown back keep turning up, indicating someone’s been catching them illegally, so Bear—wondering whom to trust—investigates with his friend Olivia Anaya, also a seventh grader. Whether building a pyramid, catching illegal lobster catchers, or thwarting Olivia’s sexist, racist track-team coach, the quirky island community comes together to make things right. As in her first novel, Chalmers conjures up the warmth, charm, and eccentricity of Oxbow Island’s widely diverse but close-knit residents (plus some Portlanders). It’s heartening to see how they creatively rally round each other again and again for problem-solving and protection. Chalmers also makes math and science attractive, as with Bear’s increasing enthusiasm for his project or when calculating how many pumpkins are needed for a pyramid. A satisfying conclusion ties things up. Hogan contributes monochrome chapter-head illustrations that reflect the island’s appeal and quirky characters.
An equally wholesome and amusing tale that celebrates friendship, nature, and curious inquiry.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 209
Publisher: Maine Authors Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 29, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Balliett delivers a loosely constructed tale about a modern lad who discovers an exciting connection between himself and Charles Darwin. In a box dropped off by his sociopathic father, Zoomy finds a battered old notebook whose unidentified author was—like Zoomy—compulsive about making lists of tasks and methodically checking off each item in succession. The word “Galapagos” and other clues in the book prompt visits to the local library, where Zoomy makes a high-energy new friend in summer visitor Lorrol. Together the two immerse themselves in a study of Darwin’s life and plan a series of broadsheets (reproduced within) containing extracts from the scientist’s writings. Around these and other info-dumps the author wraps an engaging picture of Zoomy’s life with loving, sensitive grandparents. But a rococo chain of events that begins with the notebook’s theft and climaxes in a contrived fire seems inserted just to move the plot along while providing a demonstration of small-town values in action. Unlike the author’s previous outings, here her enthusiasm for historical research seems to outweigh her interest in creating a well-founded story. (Mystery. 11-13)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-439-85209-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2010
Slipping Dave Barry–style ruminations between each chapter, the pseudonymous Dr. Soup, world-famous “Advisor to the Ill-Advised,” strands the motley time-traveling cast assembled in A Whole Nother Story (2010)—including brilliant scientist Ethan Cheeseman, his three children (repeatedly described as “smart, polite, attractive, and relatively odor-free”), a psychic dog, a sock puppet and a crew of cursed but friendly pirates—in 1668 New England. Many misadventures and an Atlantic crossing later, after narrow escapes from witch hunters, a pirate of the unfriendly sort and other hazards, they proceed to Denmark to lay the aforementioned curse to rest (and run afoul of the local Duke’s evil step-twin in the process), after which the Cheesemans climb aboard a fresh time machine obligingly provided by the previous episode’s vengeful but woefully hapless villain Mr. 5 for the next stage in their quest to rescue their murdered mother. Fans of baroque misadventures, bumbling villains, heroic rescues, cliffhangers and especially sarcastic repartee—not to mention intrusive narrators—will be charmed anew. (Fantasy of the absurd. 11-13)
Pub Date: Dec. 7, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59990-436-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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