CHARLIE'S KEY

Name: CHARLIE'S KEY
Author: Rob Mills
ISBN: 978-1-55469-872-1

by Rob Mills ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2011

In this debut Canadian import, Charlie’s father slips him a key just before dying. With only one other relative, Uncle Nick,...

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Thirteen-year-old Charlie inherits just one thing from his troubled dad: a key. What it’s for might be revealed by his thuggish uncle, who’s now relentlessly stalking him.

In this debut Canadian import, Charlie’s father slips him a key just before dying. With only one other relative, Uncle Nick, whose long prison stint for two murders is just ending, he’s sent to a brutal juvenile detention center while Child Services seeks a more permanent placement. Charlie, intrepid and amusing, escapes with the help of Frankie, a newly released teen inmate, and Clare, a girl who is addicted to “Oxys.” Nick, with a badly scarred hand, which he uses to good effect to threaten people, weaves in and out of Charlie’s first-person narrative as the boy evades his sinister presence as well as authorities who don’t truly seem to have his best interests in mind. While foggy cliffs and colorful villages effectively evoke the exotic Newfoundland setting, it’s the mystery that moves the tale forward. It is not only focused on the purpose of the key, but also on Charlie’s need to discover his father’s role in the murder of possibly pedophilic Brother of the Holy Order. The sexual abuse at an orphanage, briefly described, is based on actual events.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2011

ISBN: 978-1-55469-872-1

Page Count: 184

Publisher: Orca

Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ACTION & ADVENTURE FICTION | CHILDREN'S MYSTERY & THRILLER

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THE MECHANICAL MIND OF JOHN COGGIN

by Elinor Teele ; illustrated by Ben Whitehouse ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 12, 2016

A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish.

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The dreary prospect of spending a lifetime making caskets instead of wonderful inventions prompts a young orphan to snatch up his little sister and flee. Where? To the circus, of course.

Fortunately or otherwise, John and 6-year-old Page join up with Boz—sometime human cannonball for the seedy Wandering Wayfarers and a “vertically challenged” trickster with a fantastic gift for sowing chaos. Alas, the budding engineer barely has time to settle in to begin work on an experimental circus wagon powered by chicken poop and dubbed (with questionable forethought) the Autopsy. The hot pursuit of malign and indomitable Great-Aunt Beauregard, the Coggins’ only living relative, forces all three to leave the troupe for further flights and misadventures. Teele spins her adventure around a sturdy protagonist whose love for his little sister is matched only by his fierce desire for something better in life for them both and tucks in an outstanding supporting cast featuring several notably strong-minded, independent women (Page, whose glare “would kill spiders dead,” not least among them). Better yet, in Boz she has created a scene-stealing force of nature, a free spirit who’s never happier than when he’s stirring up mischief. A climactic clutch culminating in a magnificently destructive display of fireworks leaves the Coggin sibs well-positioned for bright futures. (Illustrations not seen.)

A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish. (Adventure. 11-13)

Pub Date: April 12, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-06-234510-3

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ACTION & ADVENTURE FICTION | CHILDREN'S FAMILY | CHILDREN'S ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS

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THE SCREAMING STAIRCASE

From the Lockwood & Co. series , Vol. 1

by Jonathan Stroud ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 17, 2013

A heartily satisfying string of entertaining near-catastrophes, replete with narrow squeaks and spectral howls.

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Three young ghost trappers take on deadly wraiths and solve an old murder case in the bargain to kick off Stroud’s new post-Bartimaeus series.

Narrator Lucy Carlyle hopes to put her unusual sensitivity to supernatural sounds to good use by joining Lockwood & Co.—one of several firms that have risen to cope with the serious ghost Problem that has afflicted England in recent years. As its third member, she teams with glib, ambitious Anthony Lockwood and slovenly-but-capable scholar George Cubbins to entrap malign spirits for hire. The work is fraught with peril, not only because a ghost’s merest touch is generally fatal, but also, as it turns out, as none of the three is particularly good at careful planning and preparation. All are, however, resourceful and quick on their feet, which stands them in good stead when they inadvertently set fire to a house while discovering a murder victim’s desiccated corpse. It comes in handy again when they later rashly agree to clear Combe Carey Hall, renowned for centuries of sudden deaths and regarded as one of England’s most haunted manors. Despite being well-stocked with scream-worthy ghastlies, this lively opener makes a light alternative for readers who find the likes of Joseph Delaney’s Last Apprentice series too grim and creepy for comfort.

A heartily satisfying string of entertaining near-catastrophes, replete with narrow squeaks and spectral howls. (Ghost adventure. 11-13)