by Stephenie Wilson Peterson ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 28, 2020
Facing a dangerous, otherworldly challenge, a resourceful young heroine discovers her strength.
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Grace’s best friends are ghosts. So how can she say no when they ask her for help?
It’s summer vacation, and 12-year-old Grace, the book’s relatable narrator, is happy to leave the daily bullying at school behind. Labeled a weirdo and a loner, Grace does have friends: the ghosts she has interacted with all her life. So when Grace learns from them that a 300-year-old curse is keeping the ghosts in her small mountain town from moving on to their eternal rest—and that she might be able to help them—she agrees to try. Can Grace break the curse? And do witches—and mages, fairies, and mermaids—really exist? More than magic is happening here, however. Most male characters are sympathetic, including classmate Bain, who offers warmth and support. But this spooky tale is primarily female-centered and grounded in positive messages, as are the author’s previous two books for middle schoolers: Nellie Nova Takes Flight (2016) and Nellie Nova’s Summer on the Run (2018), about a time-traveling girl scientist. Grace grows as she sheds patterns of self-doubt and fear to realize her unusual gifts. Her mom and grandmother face their own, similar challenges, deepening the author’s message. One unfortunate distraction: Grace’s intermittent description of her ghostly friends as “ghouls,” a word customarily meaning the evil undead.
Facing a dangerous, otherworldly challenge, a resourceful young heroine discovers her strength.Pub Date: April 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73438-662-2
Page Count: 178
Publisher: Immortal Works Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Aaron Reynolds ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 4, 2021
Funny delivery, but some jokes really miss the mark.
An animal ghost seeks closure after enduring aquatic atrocities.
In this sequel to The Incredibly Dead Pets of Rex Dexter (2020), sixth grader Rex is determined to once again use his ability to communicate with dead animals for the greater good. A ghost narwhal’s visit gives Rex his next opportunity in the form of the clue “bad water.” Rex enlists Darvish—his Pakistani American human best friend—and Drumstick—his “faithful (dead) chicken”—to help crack the case. But the mystery is only one of Rex’s many roadblocks. For starters, Sami Mulpepper hugged him at a dance, and now she’s his “accidental girlfriend.” Even worse, Darvish develops one of what Rex calls “Game Preoccupation Disorders” over role-playing game Monsters & Mayhem that may well threaten the pair’s friendship. Will Rex become “a Sherlock without a Watson,” or can the two make amends in time to solve the mystery? This second outing effectively carries the “ghost-mist” torch from its predecessor without feeling too much like a formulaic carbon copy. Spouting terms like plausible deniability and in flagrante delicto, Rex makes for a hilariously bombastic (if unlikable) first-person narrator. The over-the-top style is contagious, and black-and-white illustrations throughout add cartoony punchlines to various scenes. Unfortunately, scenes in which humor comes at the expense of those with less status are downright cringeworthy, as when Rex, who reads as White, riffs on the impossibility of his ever pronouncing Darvish’s surname or he plays dumb by staring into space and drooling.
Funny delivery, but some jokes really miss the mark. (Paranormal mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5523-5
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
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by Ally Malinenko ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 16, 2022
Offers a hauntingly truthful view of secrets and strength.
A tale of survival, friendship, and the strength that comes from overcoming fears.
Middle schooler Jac is dealing with the fallout of a real-life nightmare: childhood cancer. But it’s not just the fear of recurrence that she has to handle, but the reality of surviving and carrying the burden of her mom’s constant worry. When Jac discovers a large house that wasn’t there before looming at the end of a street in her suburban New Jersey neighborhood, she worries it’s a hallucination, which could mean a recurrence of her illness. But after her best friend, a boy named Hazel, sees the house too, her sense of adventure takes over. Provoked by a couple of bullies who dare them to enter and then follow them inside, Jac and Hazel explore the house and are met with surprises—like a key with Jac’s likeness on it—that suggest her connection to this strange and terrifying place is personal. Before long, the kids realize they are trapped inside. Shocks follow with every new door they open as they search for an exit and discover ever increasing frights. Delightfully nightmarish visions chase Jac, offering the feel of a thrilling game with twisted and terrifying imagery, as she navigates the house, seeking to understand her connection to this unusual place in this emotionally resonant story. Characters seem to default to White.
Offers a hauntingly truthful view of secrets and strength. (Paranormal. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-313657-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
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