Since his father’s death, 13-year-old Nathaniel Greene Makeworthy Fuller IV and his mother have been living in New York City with Nate’s wealthy, paternal great-aunt Alice. For some time, Nate has been secretly listening to the “spooky, late-night gatherings” taking place at their apartment involving great-Aunt Alice’s new friend, Mr. Trane. Nate is hoping these meetings will end once they all leave for their summer holiday. Unfortunately, this summer, stern Aunt Alice has Nate working as a “dogsbody” (a worthless drudge) at Bennett & Son, Gentleman’s Hatters, where he has the good fortune to meet Harry Houdini. The Houdinis are a warm and welcoming couple who eagerly befriend Nate and his mother. When the Houdinis learn that Mr. Trane is using these late-night séances to try and steal Aunt Alice’s wealth, Nate and Houdini work together to unmask the charlatan. The suspense builds to a thoroughly enjoyable climax in this fast-paced historical-fiction mystery. Readers will delight in the many references to Houdini’s magic, and to New York in 1911. Pair this one with Gary Blackwood’s Second Sight (2005) and look for sequels. (Fiction. 9-14)
Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2006
ISBN: 0-374-31680-5
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sensitive coming-of-age tale about waking up to injustice and where that knowledge can lead.
Seen through the eyes of three seventh-graders, a prison escape upends daily life in a small Adirondack town.
Wolf Creek’s economy revolves around its maximum security prison. Nora’s dad is its superintendent; Lizzie’s grandma works in the kitchen; Elidee’s brother is an inmate. Nora and Lizzie, white, are best friends. Arriving in this very white town with her mother two weeks before school ends, Elidee, black, feels isolated. She and her mother only moved to Wolf Creek because she didn’t get into an elite private school back in New York City. Nora first finds her unfriendly. Elidee’s reluctance to join in shows of support for the corrections staff, police, and volunteers engaged in the manhunt affronts her. With Lizzie’s help she opens her eyes to the slights, subtle and overt, Elidee endures from some local whites. Most townspeople and prison staff are white; most inmates are black and Latinx. The manhunt broadens, reaching Lizzie’s family and severely straining it. Elidee pours her anger and unhappiness into writing poetry, discovering her authentic voice. The story unfolds in time-capsule entries. Press clippings, text messages, and voice recordings effectively convey the racism hiding in plain sight, while the girls’ letters provide the narrative throughline. Not all entries work—Owen’s repetitive cartoons add little—but the format underlines the breakout’s communitywide impact.
A sensitive coming-of-age tale about waking up to injustice and where that knowledge can lead. (author’s note, bibliography) (Fiction. 9-14)Pub Date: June 5, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68119-536-0
Page Count: 420
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Eleven-year-old James Terik isn’t particularly appreciated in the Pompaday household. Marvin, a beetle who lives happily with his “smothering, overinvolved relatives” behind the Pompadays’ kitchen sink, has observed James closely and knows he’s something special even if the boy’s mother and stepfather don’t. Insect and human worlds collide when Marvin uses his front legs to draw a magnificent pen-and-ink miniature for James’s birthday. James is thrilled with his tiny new friend, but is horrified when his mother sees the beetle’s drawing and instantly wants to exploit her suddenly special son’s newfound talents. The web further tangles when the Metropolitan Museum of Art enlists James to help catch a thief by forging a miniature in the style of Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer. Delightful intricacies of beetle life—a cottonball bed, playing horseshoes with staples and toothpicks—blend seamlessly with the suspenseful caper as well as the sentimental story of a complicated-but-rewarding friendship that requires a great deal of frantic leg-wiggling on Marvin’s part. Murphy’s charming pen-and-ink drawings populate the short chapters of this funny, winsome novel. (author’s note) (Fantasy. 10-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8050-8270-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2008
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