Some scary moments and a juicy slice of history distinguish this credible mystery.
Young people at a Catskills resort band together to head off (so to speak) some ghostly chicanery.
A rash of kitchen accidents and vandalism has the Pine Grove Hotel’s owner, Mrs. Liebman, convinced that the ghost of her Bubbie Bluma is trying to drive her away. Not only that, but repeated appearances of a headless horseman like the one in the Washington Irving story have the summer guests on edge and ready to decamp. Moreover, the horseman’s harassing Zeke Parker, a solitary old neighbor who was born in slavery. So instead of the dull summer he was expecting, young white New Yorker Sammy Levin finds himself part of “The Ichabods,” a squad of young people who sneak out at night to investigate. He also discovers hidden talents after the resort’s tummler (social director) enlists him to entertain the guests—bringing tears with his rendition of “My Yiddishe Mama” and even singing a duet with Eddie Cantor. Arato lines up suspects (notably a backwoods “mountain man” who calls Zeke a “darkie”) and contrived but leading clues, using real locations to enhance the period flavor and rounding out her characters with reminiscences by Zeke of his youth and by Sammy of life back in Poland during the late war.
Some scary moments and a juicy slice of history distinguish this credible mystery. (historical note, glossary of Yiddish) (Historical fiction/mystery. 10-12)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-55455-269-6
Page Count: 232
Publisher: Fitzhenry & Whiteside
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
The bird’s-eye view into this pivotal moment provides a powerful story, one that adults will applaud—but between the...
The ugly brutality of the Jim Crow South is recounted in dulcet, poetic tones, creating a harsh and fascinating blend.
Fact and fiction pair in the story of Rose Lee Carter, 13, as she copes with life in a racially divided world. It splits wide open when a 14-year-old boy from Chicago named Emmett Till goes missing. Jackson superbly blends the history into her narrative. The suffocating heat, oppression, and despair African-Americans experienced in 1955 Mississippi resonate. And the author effectively creates a protagonist with plenty of suffering all her own. Practically abandoned by her mother, Rose Lee is reviled in her own home for the darkness of her brown skin. The author ably captures the fear and dread of each day and excels when she shows the peril of blacks trying to assert their right to vote in the South, likely a foreign concept to today’s kids. Where the book fails, however, is in its overuse of descriptors and dialect and the near-sociopathic zeal of Rose Lee's grandmother Ma Pearl and her lighter-skinned cousin Queen. Ma Pearl is an emotionally remote tyrant who seems to derive glee from crushing Rose Lee's spirits. And Queen is so glib and self-centered she's almost a cartoon.
The bird’s-eye view into this pivotal moment provides a powerful story, one that adults will applaud—but between the avalanche of old-South homilies and Rose Lee’s relentlessly hopeless struggle, it may be a hard sell for younger readers. (Historical fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-544-78510-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers will need to strap on their helmets and prepare for a wild ride.
Disaster overtakes a group of sixth graders on a leadership-building white-water rafting trip.
Deep in the Montana wilderness, a dam breaks, and the resultant rush sweeps away both counselors, the rafts, and nearly all the supplies, leaving five disparate preteens stranded in the wilderness far from where they were expected to be. Narrator Daniel is a mild White kid who’s resourceful and good at keeping the peace but given to worrying over his mentally ill father. Deke, also White, is a determined bully, unwilling to work with and relentlessly taunting the others, especially Mia, a Latina, who is a natural leader with a plan. Tony, another White boy, is something of a friendly follower and, unfortunately, attaches himself to Deke while Imani, a reserved African American girl, initially keeps her distance. After the disaster, Deke steals the backpack with the remaining food and runs off with Tony, and the other three resolve to do whatever it takes to get it back, eventually having to confront the dangerous bully. The characters come from a variety of backgrounds but are fairly broadly drawn; still, their breathlessly perilous situation keeps the tale moving briskly forward, with one threatening situation after another believably confronting them. As he did with Wildfire (2019), Newbery Honoree Philbrick has crafted another action tale for young readers that’s impossible to put down.
Readers will need to strap on their helmets and prepare for a wild ride. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-64727-3
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
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