Chic, engaging storytelling elevates this delectable horror romp.
Twin siblings correspond with the ghost next door in Green’s free-verse middle-grade spookfest.
Thirteen-year-old Jayce and Evie are ready to unwind for their first summer vacation at a Virginia lake resort. Local kids quickly fill them in on the legend surrounding Lake Lucy, reputedly named after a girl who inexplicably disappeared. As if that weren’t scary enough, an old, abandoned, and probably haunted house sits right next to the rental where the twins and their parents are staying. After Jayce captures video footage of a potential ghost at said house, he seeks answers by means of writing a letter to the shade (actually, his braver sister slips it in the house’s mailbox). Even Jayce is surprised when the ghost writes back. Though the scribbled replies are initially vague, later correspondence makes an unusual demand of the twins. Jayce, whose dreams are plagued by the haunted house and phantom resident, willingly obliges. Is this ghost Lucy, or someone else, and what exactly do they want? Green’s free-verse text gives this novel ample style without diluting its substance. Suspense slowly builds as more than one person warns the twins to avoid the house and Evie spots something bizarre through a window…something that doesn’t belong. The cast shines, including the ever-playful Evie, whose most beloved possession is a plush lizard; fellow vacationer Blas, whose unwavering support boosts Jayce’s courage; and the mysterious “year-round boy” whose family runs the resort. Readers will fly through these pages as short stanzas beget concise chapters. The author’s lyrical verse makes reading a sheer delight: “My air-conditioned feet wiggle / as mist pours from the door / like steam from a witch’s cauldron.” The story takes a noticeable turn well before the end; while this blunts some of the mystery, the moody atmosphere sticks around for quite a long time.
Chic, engaging storytelling elevates this delectable horror romp.Pub Date: May 14, 2024
ISBN: 9781957656465
Page Count: 294
Publisher: Monarch Educational Services, L.L.C.
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A deeply imaginative journey that puts the “cat” in cathartic.
A loyal black kitten’s boy is under supernatural attack.
Eleven-month-old Nimbus loves Fletcher, the boy who nursed her back to health following life-threatening injuries. When Fletcher becomes curious about a strange jar and opens it, releasing a terrible goblin, loyal Nim protects Fletcher, taking heavy damage in the process. But Fletcher’s aunt, who’s caring for him over spring break, believes Nim attacked Fletcher and dumps her far from home. Rhett, a stylish rat with star quality, befriends injured Nim and leads her to a witch’s house. While the witch cares for Nim, the witch’s cats (maternal Fern, bookish Rochester, standoffish Bianca, and openly hostile Abraxas) teach Nim important cat skills. She also discovers she has a supernatural ability: In destroying one eye of the nightmare demon in the fight to protect Fletcher, Nim gained its “dream sight.” But she also learns it might come back for Fletcher, who no longer has Nim to protect him, posing a time-sensitive, high-stakes threat. Even though the witch’s home is nice and magic itself seems to be telling her to stay put, Nim wants to find a way back to Fletcher. As a hero, Nimbus is as gritty and determined as she is adorable. Tear-jerker moments explore pet abandonment—readers may want their own pets on hand to hug—all the way through the magical, action-packed finale. Fletcher and the witch read white.
A deeply imaginative journey that puts the “cat” in cathartic. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9780062680372
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this...
Sentenced to a brutal juvenile detention camp for a crime he didn't commit, a wimpy teenager turns four generations of bad family luck around in this sunburnt tale of courage, obsession, and buried treasure from Sachar (Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger, 1995, etc.).
Driven mad by the murder of her black beau, a schoolteacher turns on the once-friendly, verdant town of Green Lake, Texas, becomes feared bandit Kissin' Kate Barlow, and dies, laughing, without revealing where she buried her stash. A century of rainless years later, lake and town are memories—but, with the involuntary help of gangs of juvenile offenders, the last descendant of the last residents is still digging. Enter Stanley Yelnats IV, great-grandson of one of Kissin' Kate's victims and the latest to fall to the family curse of being in the wrong place at the wrong time; under the direction of The Warden, a woman with rattlesnake venom polish on her long nails, Stanley and each of his fellow inmates dig a hole a day in the rock-hard lake bed. Weeks of punishing labor later, Stanley digs up a clue, but is canny enough to conceal the information of which hole it came from. Through flashbacks, Sachar weaves a complex net of hidden relationships and well-timed revelations as he puts his slightly larger-than-life characters under a sun so punishing that readers will be reaching for water bottles.
Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this rugged, engrossing adventure. (Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 978-0-374-33265-5
Page Count: 233
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2000
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