Light fantasy with wholesome messages for tweens.
Dineen (She Sins at Midnight, 2014) incorporates spirit advisers into a feel-good, small-town mystery for middle-grade readers.
A trio of otherworldly female conspirators set the stage, telling readers that the Willamette Wig Factory must reopen, and that they will nudge events to make it so. The story immediately shifts to 11-year-old Wilhelmina Rhonda Snodgrass, aka “Willy,” who has “red hair she hated, freckles she loathed,” and who’s been uprooted by a family move. Leaving behind her best friends and swim team, a lonely Willy now finds herself in Oregon, friendless and dreading the start of seventh grade. When she meets Thomasina Franchesca Andretti (aka “Tommy”), she finds that they share more than boyish nicknames. Tommy recently dyed her hair blue, and together, the wholesome, brightly coiffed duo set out to explore the town. Along the way, they teach a lesson to the bullying head cheerleader and aim to bring an important town industry back to life. They meet elderly Georgianna Carbunkle (who dispenses etiquette along with advice), and discover unknown family connections. They and a host of other oddly named characters inevitably get the factory open in time. A broken carousel with a ghostly teen attendant also pops up throughout the story, which could have used tighter editing. However, Dineen’s introduction sets a tone that’s maintained throughout: this is a story that’s set around a mission. Aimed at the misfits, the bullied, the peer-pressured—in other words, most preteens—the tale also has an undercurrent of advice: make a friend, listen to elders, find the right dress and the right hair, and things will work out. The author’s humorous tone, meanwhile, keeps things light, and several recipes provide a nice final touch.
Light fantasy with wholesome messages for tweens.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4974-3194-2
Page Count: -
Publisher: Kissing Frogs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A snappy mystery that’s full of heart.
A group of bright friends tackles the puzzle of their lives.
Elmwood, New Hampshire, 11-year-old Gina Sparks is small in stature but big on reporting ongoing dramas for the local newspaper with support from her journalist mom. When an unbelievable scoop comes her way, Gina must rely on her tightknit crew of sixth grade best friends whose initials happen to spell GEEK, a label they choose to proudly reclaim. She and science-minded prankster Elena Hernández, theater kid Edgar Feingarten, and driven math genius Kevin Robinson decide to get to the bottom of things when they learn that the Van Houten Toy & Game Company heir made elaborate plans to leave everything to the town of Elmwood before her death—but only if a member of the community could solve an intricate multistep puzzle. Gina hopes that deciphering the clues and finding the missing fortune will be just the thing to revitalize the down-on-its-luck town and bring the Elmwood Tribune back into the black, saving her mom’s job and Gina’s passion project. The GEEKs work together, using their individual talents and deductive reasoning skills to unravel the mystery. Infused with media literacy pointers, such as the difference between fact and opinion and reminders to avoid bias when reporting, the story encourages readers to think critically. Gina and Edgar read as White; Elena is cued as Latinx, and Kevin is implied Black.
A snappy mystery that’s full of heart. (Mystery. 9-13)Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-37793-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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