A straightforward but well-structured and absorbing supernatural tale of change and coping.
A bereaved boy discovers that he can see ghosts in this middle-grade novel.
Ever since 1900, when spiritualists “tore a hole” between the real world and the supernatural realm, poltergeists have come through the opening and plagued mortals. Like all children, 12-year-old Alex Lenard was tattooed at birth with a mark shielding him from “evil spirits.” His house in New Orleans is covered in pentacles and other signs of protection. Supernatural entities—and the arcane methods of keeping them at bay—are an everyday part of life. Alex is a star ghostball player at school. But on the way to the state championship, he is badly injured in a car accident. His mother is killed. Not only will the grief-stricken Alex never play again, the accident switches something inside of him. He develops psychic powers—a change thought to be impossible at his age. Alex doesn’t wish to see ghosts. His dad is staunchly anti-psychic, and going back to school will be hard enough for Alex without having his crazy aunt and his weird, paranormal-obsessed cousin Hannah move in next door. But what Alex wants doesn’t seem to matter. When he accompanies his aunt and cousin on one of their investigations, they uncover a spirit that needs putting to rest—and an evil entity hell-bent on stopping them. Backed by his Jamaican best friend, Jason Anderson, Alex must either accept his new situation or risk losing everyone he has left. McCauley writes in the first person, past tense and tells a simple story at an effective pace. The worldbuilding is a bit clumsy at first—the early chapters repeat some information—but once over its teething troubles, the book moves smoothly from premise to execution. The dialogue is well handled. The ubiquitous nature of the spirits is a pleasing facet that stands out. But of course the true focus is on Alex’s loss and how he deals with it. Alex is an average but likable protagonist, and Hannah and Jason are able supporting characters. Young readers should find themselves deeply engrossed.
A straightforward but well-structured and absorbing supernatural tale of change and coping. (glossary)Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-951069-04-9
Page Count: 178
Publisher: Celtic Sea, LLC
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
Neither George’s experiences nor the author’s pedagogical additions offer much to engage readers’ hearts or minds.
Faint echoes of the middle volumes of the Little House series are all that animate this bland, Depression-era epistolary tale.
Apps opens with a superfluous introduction to his fictional family and their historical background and closes with two pages of letter-writing exercises. In between, he records five months of life on a Wisconsin farm. Although the family’s removal to the farm is triggered by the loss of the father’s factory job, hardship seems very far-off. During the period covered by the book, the weather is idyllic, money never seems tight (along with horses and heavy equipment, George’s father buys both a puppy, shipped in from a distant locale, and a retired circus pony), and not even the death of a cow or the dumping of a load of seed oats in a ditch results in any sort of setback. All is told via the correspondence between 12- (later 13-) year-old George Struckmeyer and his grandmother back in Cleveland. Grandma responds with eye-glazing platitudes (“What a Fourth of July celebration! Picnics are fun, aren’t they? And having one near a lake makes it even more fun”) to George’s long, polished accounts. He tells of social events, baseball games, getting the hay in, feeding a passing hobo and putting on an amateur circus in the barn, among other small adventures.
Neither George’s experiences nor the author’s pedagogical additions offer much to engage readers’ hearts or minds. (Historical fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: April 16, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-55591-998-6
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Fulcrum
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
A young would-be magician gets lessons in both stagecraft and life from a crusty elder.
Fifth-grader Robbie Darko is horrified to learn that he’ll be giving up his room to terrifying, old Grandma Melvyn while she waits for a knee operation. Discovering that she had been a renowned magician in her early days, though, he sees opportunity. He earns her respect and enlists her help with his act for the upcoming school talent show by gradually learning how to stand up to her harsh tongue and temper. What she teaches him are not new tricks but deeper principles, from “Your job is to make [audiences] believe impossible things” to the values of relentless preparation and of flexibility when things go wrong. These initially seem disappointingly abstract but stand him in good stead both for the show and for when Grandma Melvyn takes another, final trip to the hospital. The author creates a sympathetic cast, but Robbie’s habit of refusing to describe his tricks while overexplaining everything else in his life may leave readers wanting to know less about him and more about Grandma Melvyn and his best friend Cat, a classmate with a real gift for connecting with people. Beaty slips in some important stuff here, but the supporting characters steal the show. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: April 2, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4197-0638-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
