by Anne Fine ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 9, 2003
England’s Children’s Laureate lets out all the stops in this no-holds-barred look at a Christmas celebration in an English family full of eccentric relatives, including spoiled little cousins and a great-aunt who thinks she sees the vicar floating past the window. The younger son of the family, Ralph, tells the story of the holiday reunion of 15 relatives, each with issues with other family members, plus an innocent little neighbor boy who always overhears what he shouldn’t. Ralph looks back at Christmas through first-person narration told in short chapters full of snappy dialogue, witty jokes, and one comical disaster after another. The chapters are like scenes in a very funny play, full of rejoinders and exposition of family relations through dialogue and character interaction. The text includes lots of British terms and expressions, but readers used to the Harry Potter books will take that in stride. This hilarious saga is full of irreverent humor and truly original characters unlike those in any other Christmas story, a fine change from overly sweet Christmas treats. (Fiction. 9-13)
Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2003
ISBN: 0-385-73130-2
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2003
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by Anne Fine & illustrated by Penny Dale
by Celia Krampien ; illustrated by Celia Krampien ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 18, 2023
Beautifully creepy.
Sixth grader Bailee Heron must win a ghostly game to keep her town, her family, and herself from losing everything.
On Halloween in 1982, sixth grader Abigail Snook disappeared in the Bellwoods forest behind Beckett Elementary. Now, every Halloween, Beckett’s sixth graders have to play the Bellwoods Game, or her ghost will terrorize the town for the next year. If she catches you, and you don’t have a gift to sacrifice, the ghost will take something else—like your tongue. But if you manage to ring the old bell in the woods first, you’ll banish her for another year, and she’ll give you anything you want. Bailee, lover of all things horror, just wants things to go back to normal. Ever since the factory closed two years ago, her parents have worked long hours to make ends meet, often leaving Nan and Bailee alone. Then Nan got sick at the same time a vicious rumor ostracized Bailee from the rest of the class. Winning the game is Bailee’s only chance to set things right, but she soon learns everything is not as it seems in the town of Fall Hollow, where stories are weapons, friends come from strange places, and Abigail Snook isn’t the scariest thing hiding among the trees. This gorgeously illustrated, atmospheric, and evocative debut captures the fun of being scared and the hard truths of middle school. Bailee presents White; names and illustrations point to some racial diversity in secondary characters.
Beautifully creepy. (Supernatural. 9-13)Pub Date: July 18, 2023
ISBN: 9781665912501
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
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by Kristen Dickson ; illustrated by Celia Krampien
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by Erin Entrada Kelly ; illustrated by Celia Krampien
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by Kira Bigwood ; illustrated by Celia Krampien
by Wendy Mass ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 2006
Years before he died, Jeremy Fink’s father prepared a box containing “the meaning of life” for his son to open on his 13th birthday. When Jeremy receives the box a few months before that momentous day, the keys are missing, and it’s up to him and his best friend Lizzy to find a way into the box. The search for the keys—or, failing the keys, the meaning of life itself—takes the two throughout New York City and into a spot of trouble, which lands them a very unusual community-service sentence: They must return treasures to the children, now grown, who pawned them long ago. This device brings Jeremy and Lizzy—both originals to the core—into contact with a calculated variety of characters, all of whom have their own unique angles on the meaning of life. Mass spins a leisurely tale that’s occasionally Konigsburg-esque, carefully constructed to give narrator Jeremy ample time to reflect on his encounters. It may be a subplot or two in need of a trim, and the resolution will surprise nobody but Jeremy, but agreeable on the whole. (Fiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-316-05829-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2006
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by Rebecca Stead & Wendy Mass
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by Wendy Mass ; illustrated by Gabi Mendez ; color by Cai Tse
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by Wendy Mass ; illustrated by Oriol Vidal
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