“Mom, there’s an eye in the sink.” Read on if you dare.
A new collection of original short chillers just right for sharing with unsuspecting middle graders.
Brown, a prolific composer and performer, expertly folds such familiar terror elements as malign ghosts and snatchers from the shadows, sudden fogs or storms, premonitions, and eerie local legends into contemporary American settings. Arranged beneath five rubrics, from “Something’s Not Safe at School” to “Better Not Mess with What’s Best Left Alone,” the 33 tales usually feature young people vanishing or coming to sudden ends through carelessness or not minding their elders. There are enough exceptions, though, for variety. There’s a vampire lad who attends a “Costume Party” disguised as a human boy (“No necking, now,” says his so-funny undead dad), an author and self-described “Bookworm” who eats her fans after a reading, and a solitary college grad who survives a home invasion thanks to a ghostly “Warning.” The author’s invention lags a bit in some entries toward the end, but her sober, matter-of-fact narrative style is just the ticket for keying up suspense. Even in the most gruesome tales (as in the one about an oversized bullfrog that delivers just deserts to a trio of frogs’-leg harvesters) she steers clear of explicit reference to gore and ichor. She seldom provides physical descriptions of her human victims, but their names suggest at least a bit of diversity.
“Mom, there’s an eye in the sink.” Read on if you dare. (Horror/short stories. 10-13)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-939160-99-7
Page Count: 260
Publisher: August House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
Physically slender but long on mystical atmosphere, Albarn’s debut features a mix of feathery line portraits and translucent leaves of pale, reworked photos of butterfly-wing and other natural patterns. They illustrate a short, formally told tale of Faerie retribution and redemption. In the first part, a bored, malicious lad tries to set fire to a Druidic Oak near his parents’ cottage and is embedded within the wood by angry sprites. Years later, when the Faeries try to do the same to a young girl whose parents plan to cut the tree down, the boy saves her and is released for showing compassion. The elevated language is nowhere near as polished as the pictures: “The boy awoke with a thud to his heart”; “He twisted with anxiety, wretched with his own memories and shameful of his past.” The special paper adds a misty, magical air to the page turns, however, and the insectile, sharp-tempered Faeries inject a needed thread of animation. Will tempt fans of the Spiderwick series and all things Faerie. (Fantasy. 10-12)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-897476-52-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simply Read
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2010
A familiar story skillfully reimagined for today’s gadget-savvy youth.
Hannah Hadley is a young special agent who must thwart a clear and present danger to the United States in Hoover’s “smart is cool” young adult novel.
Hannah Hadley might seem like most 13-year-old girls. She enjoys painting, playing with her MP3 player and spending time with friends. But that’s where the similarities end. Hadley doubles as Agent 10-1, among the youngest spies drafted into the CIA’s Div Y department. She’s joined in her missions by her 10-pound Shih Tzu, Kiwi (with whom she communicates telepathically), and her best friend Tommie Claire, a blind girl with heightened senses. When duty calls, the group sneaks to a hidden command center located under the floor of Hadley’s art studio. Her current mission, aptly named “Operation Farmer Jones,” takes her to a secluded farmhouse in Canada. There, al-Qaida terrorists have gathered the necessary ingredients for a particularly devastating nuclear warhead that they intend to fire into America. The villains are joined by the Mad Madam of Mayhem, a physicist for hire whom the terrorists force to complete the weapon of mass destruction. With Charlie Higson’s Young James Bond series and the ongoing 39 Clues novellas, covert missions and secret plans are the plots of choice in much of today’s fiction for young readers, and references to the famed 007 stories abound in Hoover’s tale. But while the plot feels familiar, Hoover’s use of modern slang—albeit strained at times—and gadgets such as the iTouch appeal to today’s youth. Placing girls in adult situations has been a mainstay since Mildred Wirt Benson first introduced readers to Nancy Drew in The Secret of the Old Clock, but Hannah Hadley is like Nancy Drew on steroids. Both are athletic, score well in their studies and have a measure of popularity. Hadley, however, displays a genius-level intellect and near superhuman abilities in her efforts to roust the terrorists—handy skills for a young teen spy who just so happens to get the best grades in school.
A familiar story skillfully reimagined for today’s gadget-savvy youth.Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2010
ISBN: 978-0615419688
Page Count: 239
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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