Abundantly illustrated fun for readers who are tired of the Wimpy Kid.
Detective Timmy Failure is on the case…probably not a good thing for anyone involved.
Timmy (formerly of Total Failure Inc., but he had to fire his partner, Total the polar bear) has a new case: someone stole the funds from YIP YAP, a charity created to raise money to buy books for the bookless tot Yergi Plimkin. Unfortunately, Timmy’s mother is forcing him to use his precious spring break to help her boyfriend, Doorman Dave, move to Chicago. The investigation goes on the road, with the help of Timmy’s best friend, Rollo Tookus, via telephone. Who will Timmy find as a scapegoat—er, discover to be the perpetrator? This case may answer these crucial questions: can Molly Moskins, criminal mastermind, be rehabilitated? Will Total the polar bear ever get enough bonbons? And what did Timmy actually hear his mother and Doorman Dave talking about that could change everything? Cartoonist Pastis brings his intelligent yet clueless, arrogantly overconfident detective back for a fourth nonsensical (and nonexistent) case. Some of the humor (such as the plays on song titles, quotes, and lyrics that name most chapters—“Rainy Days and Mothers Always Get Me Down,” for instance) will fly over the heads of all in the target audience. Nevertheless, for fans of the bestselling series, this one’s more of the same.
Abundantly illustrated fun for readers who are tired of the Wimpy Kid. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-8092-3
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2015
Hazel’s inquisitiveness, independence and imperfections are a winning combination.
If Harriet M. Welsch lived in 1953 in a community vulnerable to McCarthyism, this might be her story.
Fifth-grader Hazel has short hair, a Mysteries Notebook and, when the school day ends, dungarees. Her stomping grounds are Memory’s Garden—the cemetery that her parents run—and their sleepy Vermont town. Hazel sneaks canned goods from her kitchen to a graveyard mausoleum so that when the Russians attack, her family can use it as a fallout shelter. Her fear of Communists comes from duck-and-cover drills at school, Sen. McCarthy’s search for “Reds” at a local factory, the repeated failures of adults to explain anything and her own proclivity to fill in the gaps. In addition to threatening atomic annihilation, the Russians will put people into sausage grinders and eliminate ice cream floats. Surely the gravedigger her parents recently hired must be a spy. Hazel shanghais strange new boy Samuel into helping her gather evidence, but Samuel’s life holds mysteries too—and sadness. For a smart, probing kid, Hazel’s an interesting and believable mix of persistence and naïveté. Some schoolmates have “a dark, solid center that ma[kes] them mean” and some adults “[r]umor, whisper [and] lie,” but funny, relentless Hazel does what’s necessary until things come clear for her, her people and her town—with some emotional insight gained.
Hazel’s inquisitiveness, independence and imperfections are a winning combination. (author’s note) (Historical mystery. 9-12)Pub Date: May 6, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61963-348-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Despite an ending that borders on convenient, this spirited novel seamlessly combines endings and beginnings against the...
At a peaceful summertime lakeside retreat, three generations come to terms with growing up, growing old and letting go.
Adam knows this summer at the lake will be a lot different than past summers. Because of his parents’ recent divorce, his dad and cousins won’t be with them. Just he and his mom and his grandmother will share the cabin. Adam doesn’t mind spending time without other young people, but he gets worried when his grandmother displays slips of memory; she even takes to leaving notes to a man she knew as a young girl—not Adam’s grandfather—in Adam’s room. The mystery deepens when one of her notes mentions a treasure. With help from Alice, the girl who lives in the next-door cabin, Adam sets out to find the treasure, even as his mother makes plans to change his family’s life forever. St. Antoine writes with a delicate hand and lets her keen observation rule many of her pages: “Being old had to be so strange—to know you looked ragged on the outside, but to still feel...like the fresh young person you once were.” Adam and Alice are both endearing and believable teenagers.
Despite an ending that borders on convenient, this spirited novel seamlessly combines endings and beginnings against the beautiful backdrop of a lake in summer. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: May 13, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6564-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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