A satisfyingly spooky tale with some subtly powerful themes.
This debut middle-grade novel offers a creepy horror story about a girl who must save her family from a demon that her mother inadvertently unleashed on the world.
Evelyn Taylor’s life isn’t exactly idyllic. Her father recently moved out, and her mother never seems to have time for her—and to make matters worse, the eighth grader has been experiencing frightening visions of people getting badly hurt. But when she shares these terrifying premonitions with the folks involved in an attempt to save them from harm, they don’t believe her. After her best friend, Kayla Phillips, ignores Evelyn’s warning—and is hit by a car and severely injured—the protagonist suddenly becomes a pariah. Everyone in her middle school, including her former best friend, shuns her and she is soon known as the “wicked witch” who brings bad luck to all she encounters. The summer grants Evelyn a respite of sorts from the teasing and ostracization, but her life takes an even bleaker turn when she, her mother, and her younger brother must travel cross-country to take care of the estate of her recently deceased great-aunt. A key and an ominous letter warning to keep something called a “Zalthagor box” safe at all costs doesn’t stop her mother from finding and opening it—with nightmarish consequences. With her family members’ lives at stake, Evelyn and her brother must unearth her ancestors’ dark history to understand the mystery of the box. Character depth is an unarguable strength of Schultz’s engaging story, as Evelyn is both identifiable and endearing. Additionally, the themes explored are spot-on for the readership (bullying, self-esteem, the force of family), as is the tone, which is scary without being traumatizing: “Its ghastly face had shining red eyes and a wide, snarling mouth. It moved like a snake in the air, writhing and twisting. Black wings on its back unfurled, almost filling the small room.”
A satisfyingly spooky tale with some subtly powerful themes.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2022
ISBN: 979-8351576565
Page Count: 218
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Halloween is used merely as a backdrop; better holiday titles for young readers are available.
A ghost learns to appreciate his differences.
The little ghost protagonist of this title is unusual. He’s a quilt, not a lightweight sheet like his parents and friends. He dislikes being different despite his mom’s reassurance that his ancestors also had unconventional appearances. Halloween makes the little ghost happy, though. He decides to watch trick-or-treaters by draping over a porch chair—but lands on a porch rail instead. A mom accompanying her daughter picks him up, wraps him around her chilly daughter, and brings him home with them! The family likes his looks and comforting warmth, and the little ghost immediately feels better about himself. As soon as he’s able to, he flies out through the chimney and muses happily that this adventure happened only due to his being a quilt. This odd but gently told story conveys the importance of self-respect and acceptance of one’s uniqueness. The delivery of this positive message has something of a heavy-handed feel and is rushed besides. It also isn’t entirely logical: The protagonist could have been a different type of covering; a blanket, for instance, might have enjoyed an identical experience. The soft, pleasing illustrations’ palette of tans, grays, white, black, some touches of color, and, occasionally, white text against black backgrounds suggest isolation, such as the ghost feels about himself. Most humans, including the trick-or-treating mom and daughter, have beige skin. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-16.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 66.2% of actual size.)
Halloween is used merely as a backdrop; better holiday titles for young readers are available. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7352-6447-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
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
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