An uplifting collection of fast-paced tales that champion resilience and understanding, while staying irresistibly fun.
The Mystery Force kids and their new allies confront plots to take over the world in Neill’s latest set of three rapid-fire illustrated middle-grade adventures.
In “Missing Person,” Rasheed, Jonathan, and Jojo, along with their animal companions, fire fox Maximilian and karkadan Dan, hunt for their missing friend Dexter. Along the way, they uncover a scheme, hatched by an old antagonist, to turn beloved Robbie Robot toys into malevolent mechanical armies. “The Stone Mountain Mystery,” told in two parts, first introduces Cole and Swathy, both sorcerers-in-training at the Magesterium. They deal with an evil scam at an amusement park involving captured magical creatures, including sabretooth squirrels. The second part introduces shy Danika, who joins Rasheed, Jonathan, and Jojo on a camping trip, which leads to a quest for a powerful stone. Along the way, they face the question, “What is the opposite of love?” The answer is “fear,” and the importance of overcoming fear threads through every story. “Doppelgangers” introduces Lila, a Dragon Rider, and unites all the characters and magical creatures to save a city from villains wielding fear and fakery. Neill’s adventures cleverly blend magic and cutting‑edge technology, but his dedication to character diversity sets his stories apart: Rasheed uses a wheelchair (with cool gadgets); Jojo manages anxiety and depression (with the help of a magical scarf); Jonathan uses a cane (also full of tech); Cole has diabetes; Swathy lives with HIV; and Lila has vitiligo. Neill effectively weaves these realities into the action, as when Cole and Swathy crack a clue while fetching medication. Medical asides, such as Cole explaining his glucose pump, may feel abrupt, but they may help spread invaluable awareness among young readers. Spooner’s bold comic book-style grayscale illustrations amplify the action and intensify the portrayal of characters’ emotions.
An uplifting collection of fast-paced tales that champion resilience and understanding, while staying irresistibly fun.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9798268288735
Page Count: 446
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this...
Sentenced to a brutal juvenile detention camp for a crime he didn't commit, a wimpy teenager turns four generations of bad family luck around in this sunburnt tale of courage, obsession, and buried treasure from Sachar (Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger, 1995, etc.).
Driven mad by the murder of her black beau, a schoolteacher turns on the once-friendly, verdant town of Green Lake, Texas, becomes feared bandit Kissin' Kate Barlow, and dies, laughing, without revealing where she buried her stash. A century of rainless years later, lake and town are memories—but, with the involuntary help of gangs of juvenile offenders, the last descendant of the last residents is still digging. Enter Stanley Yelnats IV, great-grandson of one of Kissin' Kate's victims and the latest to fall to the family curse of being in the wrong place at the wrong time; under the direction of The Warden, a woman with rattlesnake venom polish on her long nails, Stanley and each of his fellow inmates dig a hole a day in the rock-hard lake bed. Weeks of punishing labor later, Stanley digs up a clue, but is canny enough to conceal the information of which hole it came from. Through flashbacks, Sachar weaves a complex net of hidden relationships and well-timed revelations as he puts his slightly larger-than-life characters under a sun so punishing that readers will be reaching for water bottles.
Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this rugged, engrossing adventure. (Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 978-0-374-33265-5
Page Count: 233
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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