Strong on action and punctuated with moments of sharply felt terror.
Twelve-year-old Jack “Nim” Nottingham, a rootless foundling, braves the terrors of the London Blitz to take on an ancient, soul-eating shadow.
In his debut, Black conjures a properly terrifying night monster that attracts crawly insects, reptiles, and arachnids in droves and drops like a gooey shroud from above to leave gross boils on its gradually dying victims. Having inadvertently released it in the course of a foraging expedition in a bombed-out London mansion and seen its effect on a swelling number of the stricken, including his beloved dog, Winnie, orphanage escapee Nim desperately sets out to destroy the creature. The author anchors his tale in Nim’s inner journey from stubbornly solitary lone wolf to eventually finding a home amid a circle of friends and allies. Though the Blitz itself remains largely a background threat and isn’t developed to its full potential as a setting, readers will enjoy the focus on the multiple frantic chases and pursuits through hidden tunnels and shattered buildings, as well as developing hints of the beast’s links to historical people and events, which turn out to play crucial roles in the tense climax. The cast, mostly composed of gangs of orphaned children, reads as white.
Strong on action and punctuated with moments of sharply felt terror. (map, author’s note) (Horror. 10-13)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9780593698068
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
A heartily satisfying string of entertaining near-catastrophes, replete with narrow squeaks and spectral howls.
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)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4231-6491-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
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BOOK TO SCREEN
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It’s great to see these kids “so enthusiastic about committing high treason.” (historical note) (Historical fiction. 10-12)
Near the end of World War II, two kids join their parents in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler.
Max, 12, lives with his parents and his older sister in a Berlin that’s under constant air bombardment. During one such raid, a mortally wounded man stumbles into the white German family’s home and gasps out his last wish: “The Führer must die.” With this nighttime visitation, Max and Gerta discover their parents have been part of a resistance cell, and the siblings want in. They meet a colorful band of upper-class types who seem almost too whimsical to be serious. Despite her charming levity, Prussian aristocrat and cell leader Frau Becker is grimly aware of the stakes. She enlists Max and Gerta as couriers who sneak forged identification papers to Jews in hiding. Max and Gerta are merely (and realistically) cogs in the adults’ plans, but there’s plenty of room for their own heroism. They escape capture, rescue each other when they’re caught out during an air raid, and willingly put themselves repeatedly at risk to catch a spy. The fictional plotters—based on a mix of several real anti-Hitler resistance cells—are portrayed with a genuine humor, giving them the space to feel alive even in such a slim volume.
It’s great to see these kids “so enthusiastic about committing high treason.” (historical note) (Historical fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-35902-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
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