Aside from some overly didactic dialogue, kids will relate to Sam and her journal, and the characters and themes offer much...
Plotlines abound, including kidnapping and catching crooks, in Adelman’s work of fiction for chapter-book and middle-grade readers.
Sam, 13, attends middle school in Seattle. She’s on the basketball team, participates in school plays and volunteers at the local community center. She has Down syndrome, which she doesn’t seem concerned about. That she’s an uber-active young teen with developmental differences isn’t hard to swallow; the suburban shuffle from one organized activity to another will ring true for most kids. Unfortunately, some of the dialogue and descriptions won’t, such as when, after a loss, Sam’s basketball coach blandly asserts, “These kids make a great team and they’ll win other games.” Fortunately, the adults are relegated to supporting roles in Sam’s life. Via her diary entries and conversations, readers learn that Sam looks forward to a visit from her Uncle Alex, who is serving in Iraq. Although she’s counting the days until he arrives, she has plenty to do in the meantime. While volunteering at the community center, she grows fond of Michael, a soldier who returned from combat in Iraq after suffering a traumatic brain injury. Sam also encounters some rough characters at the community center. Although she recognizes they’re similar to the bullies at her school, she also realizes they’re more dangerous. When she and her 9-year-old brother, John, notice that the shady guys showed up about the same time the center’s cash donations disappeared, they hatch a plan to catch the thief, using John’s toy spy gear. Then Michael is kidnapped. Sam finds it hard to leave such worries to the police and other authorities. While the ending wraps up a little too neatly, this ambitious book for children hits the mark more often than not. There’s a lot to like about a mystery/adventure for preteens that takes on bullying, disabilities and a girl’s growing need for independence, and Adelman manages to weave each of those topics into a compelling story for young readers.
Aside from some overly didactic dialogue, kids will relate to Sam and her journal, and the characters and themes offer much to consider.Pub Date: May 24, 2012
ISBN: 978-1468126624
Page Count: 152
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A snappy mystery that’s full of heart.
A group of bright friends tackles the puzzle of their lives.
Elmwood, New Hampshire, 11-year-old Gina Sparks is small in stature but big on reporting ongoing dramas for the local newspaper with support from her journalist mom. When an unbelievable scoop comes her way, Gina must rely on her tightknit crew of sixth grade best friends whose initials happen to spell GEEK, a label they choose to proudly reclaim. She and science-minded prankster Elena Hernández, theater kid Edgar Feingarten, and driven math genius Kevin Robinson decide to get to the bottom of things when they learn that the Van Houten Toy & Game Company heir made elaborate plans to leave everything to the town of Elmwood before her death—but only if a member of the community could solve an intricate multistep puzzle. Gina hopes that deciphering the clues and finding the missing fortune will be just the thing to revitalize the down-on-its-luck town and bring the Elmwood Tribune back into the black, saving her mom’s job and Gina’s passion project. The GEEKs work together, using their individual talents and deductive reasoning skills to unravel the mystery. Infused with media literacy pointers, such as the difference between fact and opinion and reminders to avoid bias when reporting, the story encourages readers to think critically. Gina and Edgar read as White; Elena is cued as Latinx, and Kevin is implied Black.
A snappy mystery that’s full of heart. (Mystery. 9-13)Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-37793-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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