A captivating supernatural novel that will appeal to open-minded tweens.
The fate of a small coastal town depends on a middle schooler and an ancient medallion in Denning’s middle-grade novel.
The author’s follow-up to her first novel, Circus Train at Sunrise (2024), finds a gang of schoolkids on a perilous adventure involving a mysterious medallion with supernatural powers. A century ago, an ill-fated crew of sailors drowned off the coast in Castillo Bay, Texas, while transporting a mysterious Colombian treasure, but protagonist Ian knows nothing of this bit of local history when he sees this treasure on a school field trip to a lighthouse. His friends Marcos and JC aren’t exactly trustworthy, but he doesn’t expect them to upend the excursion by stealing the Moon Goddess medallion from its display and hiding it in his backpack. After this event, he starts to see ghosts around town: a 1950s couple, eerie divers, even a whole football team. (“I think there’s some sort of curse, and it won’t be fixed until we put the medallion back where it belongs,” he says at one point.) Marcos and JC are no help, so it’s up to Ian and his sister Maribel to hatch a plan to return it while their entire town is distracted by their school’s big homecoming weekend. Of course, none of this is as easy as it sounds, as these young adventurers eventually encounter a worsening storm and nefarious phantoms while the fate of their town hangs in the balance. Denning deftly balances the many pressures of Ian’s life, grounding the narrative in a sense of reality that is in stark contrast to the supernatural forces he encounters as the possessor of the magical medallion. Ian overcomes peer pressure and familial woes without losing his integrity and sense of self. Moreover, Denning interrogates the problematic trope of “exotic treasure” by incorporating the complexities of colonialism into the story.
A captivating supernatural novel that will appeal to open-minded tweens.Pub Date: Jan. 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781509260058
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit...
The author of the Anastasia books as well as more serious fiction (Rabble Starkey, 1987) offers her first historical fiction—a story about the escape of the Jews from Denmark in 1943.
Five years younger than Lisa in Carol Matas' Lisa's War (1989), Annemarie Johansen has, at 10, known three years of Nazi occupation. Though ever cautious and fearful of the ubiquitous soldiers, she is largely unaware of the extent of the danger around her; the Resistance kept even its participants safer by telling them as little as possible, and Annemarie has never been told that her older sister Lise died in its service. When the Germans plan to round up the Jews, the Johansens take in Annemarie's friend, Ellen Rosen, and pretend she is their daughter; later, they travel to Uncle Hendrik's house on the coast, where the Rosens and other Jews are transported by fishing boat to Sweden. Apart from Lise's offstage death, there is little violence here; like Annemarie, the reader is protected from the full implications of events—but will be caught up in the suspense and menace of several encounters with soldiers and in Annemarie's courageous run as courier on the night of the escape. The book concludes with the Jews' return, after the war, to homes well kept for them by their neighbors.
A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit of riding alone in Copenhagen, but for their Jews. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: April 1, 1989
ISBN: 0547577095
Page Count: 156
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1989
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