An uphill trek.
How do you solve a mystery involving stolen artwork? Sometimes you need to make all the right mistakes.
Stephen is a seventh-grader who follows his father’s philosophy that making mistakes can be a good thing; a mistake implies you’ve tried something new and you’re pushing yourself to accept new challenges in life. One of these challenges may be starting a friendship with a girl. Renée is very different from Steven—she loves bright colors and has a dramatic flair that makes people notice her. The two kids (both evidently white) are a mismatched pair, much like the dog duo of hyperactive Ping (a Jack Russell) and quiet Pong (a greyhound) that Stephen walks for his father’s dog-walking business. While out walking the dogs, Stephen and Renée begin to notice odd occurrences: public artwork in their neighborhood is disappearing. When Renée’s graffiti-artist brother falls under suspicion, it’s up to Stephen and Renée to prove his innocence. Although the premise is interesting, drowsy pacing and unnatural dialogue slow the plot to a putter. Loud and vibrant Renée is written as a brash one-note character, while quiet Stephen is inconsistent, both dubious about having a girl as a friend and happy to knit the night away. The matter-of-fact introduction of Stephen’s caregiving father and globe-trotting mother is pleasingly refreshing, but it doesn’t save the story’s humdrum narrative. Mystery lovers may find more excitement in Chasing Vermeer or When You Reach Me.
An uphill trek. (Mystery. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4597-3880-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Dundurn
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers will need to strap on their helmets and prepare for a wild ride.
Disaster overtakes a group of sixth graders on a leadership-building white-water rafting trip.
Deep in the Montana wilderness, a dam breaks, and the resultant rush sweeps away both counselors, the rafts, and nearly all the supplies, leaving five disparate preteens stranded in the wilderness far from where they were expected to be. Narrator Daniel is a mild White kid who’s resourceful and good at keeping the peace but given to worrying over his mentally ill father. Deke, also White, is a determined bully, unwilling to work with and relentlessly taunting the others, especially Mia, a Latina, who is a natural leader with a plan. Tony, another White boy, is something of a friendly follower and, unfortunately, attaches himself to Deke while Imani, a reserved African American girl, initially keeps her distance. After the disaster, Deke steals the backpack with the remaining food and runs off with Tony, and the other three resolve to do whatever it takes to get it back, eventually having to confront the dangerous bully. The characters come from a variety of backgrounds but are fairly broadly drawn; still, their breathlessly perilous situation keeps the tale moving briskly forward, with one threatening situation after another believably confronting them. As he did with Wildfire (2019), Newbery Honoree Philbrick has crafted another action tale for young readers that’s impossible to put down.
Readers will need to strap on their helmets and prepare for a wild ride. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-64727-3
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
A charming series opener.
A foundling mouse sets out to uncover the mystery of her origins and of the magical needle sized for humans that was left with her.
Delphine’s travels begin with a summons to the palace, where her growing reputation as a brilliant seamstress commands an order for a ball gown for Princess Petits-Oiseaux—and also gives her a chance to discover exciting hints about a vanished order of needle-wielding magic mice known as the Threaded and of an ancient war with the rats. Meanwhile, no sooner does Midnight, cruel king of the rats, learn that the needle they have been seeking for a century has been found than said old war suddenly heats up and turns into a deadly chase. Also meanwhile, only barely noticed by the animal cast but sure to snag readers’ attention, certain events involving another seamstress, a pumpkin coach, a ball, a prince, and a glass slipper are happening above the floorboards in the parallel human world. That isn’t the only sly touch in this bibbidi bobbidi debut, which is rich in clearly delineated character types, features plenty of brisk action, and is also, overall, more than a bit reminiscent in tone and setting to Brian Jacques’ Redwall series (though with more focus on fashion than food). While this volume is mostly setup, heroes and villains alike end up on their marks, and plenty of loose ends remain to stitch up later.
A charming series opener. (Animal fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-368-04802-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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