Here be treasure indeed.
Freshly certified as a young diver, 12-year-old Fernando “Fin” Román loves to spend his days at sea around the Florida Keys alongside his strong Abuelo Kiki in search of legendary lost treasure.
The treasure hunt, moreover, marks a thread through Fin’s Cuban and Puerto Rican family heritage, starting with his great-grandfather. Misfortune strikes one day while Fin and Abuelo are at sea, and Abuelo has a stroke, requiring Fin to radio for help and pilot the boat back to the marina. With Abuelo in the hospital, Fin hatches a plan to find the treasure on his behalf, reminding himself: “Plot my coordinates. Chart my destiny. Save Abuelo. Find the family legacy.” To do so, he needs to enlist the help of his father, whose safety-conscious attitude annoys and repels adventure-loving Fin. There’s another catch: Certified adult guides must accompany Fin on his dives, meddling in (and perhaps threatening) his hunt. As Dad gets fed up with the hunt, time runs out for Fin even as Abuelo’s health seems to fade. Fin and his dad must rely on and trust each other to overcome obstacles—seen and unseen—in search of the treasure. Rodriguez packs a ton of local historical know-how and genuine humor into a seaworthy debut adventure. Lighthearted yet solid prose and quirky, delightful characters round out this swell tale of plucky fun under (and above) the sea.
Here be treasure indeed. (author's note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: June 28, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-374-38979-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
PERSPECTIVES
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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