An entertaining tale with realistic kids whom young readers can relate to and well-integrated, character-building messages.
Discouraged after a trick goes awry, a kid magician gets the opportunity to wow his peers at the school talent show in this third installment of a chapter book series.
Last seen solving a spooky mystery during an overnight school trip to the local museum, third-grader Finn Fasser—with the help of his best friend, Botts—is eager to show off his new escape trick on the Labanzo Magic Studio stage. After three months of magic lessons with Mr. Labanzo, Finn is nervous but determined to be a success despite taunts from his classmate Felix (the boy’s nemesis and the studio’s popular star magician). Embarrassed by a hitch in the trick, which requires an escape from chains and locks, and burned by more taunts from Felix, Finn is so upset that he cancels his plan to repeat the stunt at his school’s upcoming talent show. It doesn’t help that Felix manipulates him into playing a prank that earns good student Finn detention for the very first time. In this series entry, Knight (Finn & Botts: Double Trouble at the Museum, 2019, etc.) offers another appealing tale featuring humor and kid-savvy dilemmas. Encounters with class bullies, supportive interactions among Finn and his friends, and responsible adults to turn to as needed are regular components of the author’s plots. Here, a sneaky kid and his sidekicks get their comeuppance, Mr. Labanzo’s encouraging words give Finn the confidence he needs to try his trick again—unexpectedly facilitated by Felix, whose motive is suspect—and a mystery is solved. (Someone has accessed the school computer and changed students’ grades.) Meyers (Ballpark Mysteries 15, 2019, etc.) again captures fun and suspense in his full-page, black-and-white, gray-toned illustrations of children who just happen to have the snouts and ears of pigs but are otherwise just regular human kids. One small slip: presumably Knight meant to use the word “devious” rather than “deviant” in describing Felix’s smile.
An entertaining tale with realistic kids whom young readers can relate to and well-integrated, character-building messages.Pub Date: July 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-73360-922-7
Page Count: 106
Publisher: Dreamwell Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 31, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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