Entertaining and suspenseful storytelling with relatable elementary school characters.
In this chapter book for young readers, a boy and his friends brave a possibly haunted cornfield on Halloween night.
Is the spooky field at the end of young Finn Fasser’s street haunted by the ghost of its former owner, old man Grim, who mysteriously disappeared more than 100 years ago? Finn is sure that it is, and there’s no way he’s going to go into the maze of stalks to find out, especially on Halloween—no matter how much his best friend, Botts, teases him about it. During his school’s Halloween carnival, Finn and his friends are fed up with school bully Bellow, whose mean tricks include dunking students’ heads in the apple-bobbing tub and putting “Pinch Me” signs on their backs. Finn’s desire to teach Bellow a lesson gives him “an idea that turned and twisted his stomach.” It involves dressing up as a demonic, ghostly Grim (while perched on Botts’ shoulders) and overcoming his own fears in order to give Bellow a scare in the cornfield. Another wrinkle: An unknown, black-caped candy thief is stealing kids’ treat bags for the second Halloween in a row, and the field may play a part in revealing the thief’s identity. Of course, the real Grim won’t show up—or will he? In this well-crafted work of juvenile fiction, debut author Knight wraps a lively narrative around believable kids in the realistic setting of a neighborhood, home, and school, pacing the story with humor, a touch of authentic suspense, and a message about standing up for others. Interestingly, while there’s no hint of it in the text, Knight’s characters are depicted in Meyers’ (The Baltimore Bandit, 2019, etc.) black-white-and-gray–toned illustrations as pigs—although, other than their snouts and ears, they’re human in appearance. The enjoyable, full-page illustrations (approximately one per chapter) skillfully complement the story with plenty of fun, atmospheric detail.
Entertaining and suspenseful storytelling with relatable elementary school characters.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-73360-920-3
Page Count: 108
Publisher: Dreamwell Press
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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