Let the games continue….
Max is back in the second part of Voight’s fine, neatly meandering mystery set early in the last century.
Feisty Max is a “Solutioneer,” donning costumes from his parents’ now-dark theater to take on sundry roles in order to investigate mysteries. These have ramped up from merely finding and restoring things in The Book of Lost Things (2013) to now investigating numerous incidences of vandalism and arson at the behest of the mayor. The implausible conceit, that this 12-year-old can believably pass himself off as all manner of working men, works, thanks to Voigt’s confident storytelling, enhanced by Bruno’s quirky, detailed illustrations. Max is a determined loner, convinced of his ability to straighten out challenging issues with only minor help from his friends and grandmother. But young criminals entrap him, and it’s only with lots of assistance that he wraps up the case. Meanwhile, he’s haunted by messages he’s received from his missing parents. He realizes they include a desperate, encoded plea for help—but also a warning of grave danger. The well-constructed, intertwining threads of Max’s growing maturity, the emerging competence of his diversely spirited friends and his recognition of their dynamic interdependence all come satisfyingly together to set up the ultimate case for the last of the trilogy: the rescue of his parents from a tiny, remote South American country.
Let the games continue…. (Mystery. 10-15)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-307-97684-0
Page Count: 356
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
Brava!
From award winner Telgemeier (Smile, 2010), a pitch-perfect graphic novel portrayal of a middle school musical, adroitly capturing the drama both on and offstage.
Seventh-grader Callie Marin is over-the-moon to be on stage crew again this year for Eucalyptus Middle School’s production of Moon over Mississippi. Callie's just getting over popular baseball jock and eighth-grader Greg, who crushed her when he left Callie to return to his girlfriend, Bonnie, the stuck-up star of the play. Callie's healing heart is quickly captured by Justin and Jesse Mendocino, the two very cute twins who are working on the play with her. Equally determined to make the best sets possible with a shoestring budget and to get one of the Mendocino boys to notice her, the immensely likable Callie will find this to be an extremely drama-filled experience indeed. The palpably engaging and whip-smart characterization ensures that the charisma and camaraderie run high among those working on the production. When Greg snubs Callie in the halls and misses her reference to Guys and Dolls, one of her friends assuredly tells her, "Don't worry, Cal. We’re the cool kids….He's the dork." With the clear, stylish art, the strongly appealing characters and just the right pinch of drama, this book will undoubtedly make readers stand up and cheer.
Brava! (Graphic fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-32698-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
SEEN & HEARD
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish.
The dreary prospect of spending a lifetime making caskets instead of wonderful inventions prompts a young orphan to snatch up his little sister and flee. Where? To the circus, of course.
Fortunately or otherwise, John and 6-year-old Page join up with Boz—sometime human cannonball for the seedy Wandering Wayfarers and a “vertically challenged” trickster with a fantastic gift for sowing chaos. Alas, the budding engineer barely has time to settle in to begin work on an experimental circus wagon powered by chicken poop and dubbed (with questionable forethought) the Autopsy. The hot pursuit of malign and indomitable Great-Aunt Beauregard, the Coggins’ only living relative, forces all three to leave the troupe for further flights and misadventures. Teele spins her adventure around a sturdy protagonist whose love for his little sister is matched only by his fierce desire for something better in life for them both and tucks in an outstanding supporting cast featuring several notably strong-minded, independent women (Page, whose glare “would kill spiders dead,” not least among them). Better yet, in Boz she has created a scene-stealing force of nature, a free spirit who’s never happier than when he’s stirring up mischief. A climactic clutch culminating in a magnificently destructive display of fireworks leaves the Coggin sibs well-positioned for bright futures. (Illustrations not seen.)
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish. (Adventure. 11-13)Pub Date: April 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234510-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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