More expertly crafted chills and thrills, leavened with laughs.
Investigating a teacher’s sudden personality change leads a set of sixth grade sleuths into serious danger in this second series caper.
A relentless bully who posts popular videos of his humiliating attacks, and a bossy new classmate aiming to replace her as leader of the Detective Club, may seem like tough challenges for Minerva Keen, but what really gets her attention is how her once-friendly language arts teacher, Claire Voyant, has abruptly turned harsh and dismissive—almost (could it be possible?) as if she were a different person. Ever alert for mysteries to solve—even if a bit of illegal surveillance or breaking and entering is required—Minerva forges ahead. Her outrageously reckless little brother, Heck, is a willing ally, shy best friend and schoolmate Silent Santos is a reluctant one, and (surprise!) even Zoe Quick, a rival overachiever with serious hacking skills, eventually comes on board. Catering equally to readers who relish their crime capers on the comical or scary sides, the co-authors again dish up a rousing combo platter with awkward mishaps, frequent barfing and belching, and sloppy food fights as well as a juicy round of robbery, kidnapping, and attempted murder. Once just deserts have been dealt out all round, the caper leaves Minerva and Heck with just one tantalizing question: Are their enigmatic, often-absent parents actually secret agents? Stay tuned. Minerva presents white, and Santos and Zoe read Black. Final art not seen.
More expertly crafted chills and thrills, leavened with laughs. (Mystery. 9-13)Pub Date: April 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780316412537
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
An environmental mystery featuring lots of clever detecting, a bit of danger, and real felonies to investigate.
Toxic waste dumped in the Everglades gives a quartet of middle school sleuths their first case.
Leading Carl Hiaasen fans over familiar ground, Ponti pitches 12-year-old Alex Sherlock and his 13-year-old sister, Zoe, with school friends Lina and Yadi as sidekicks, into a summer caper. It all begins with the hunt for a supposed fortune buried decades ago by Al Capone, culminates in a narrow escape from an exploding yacht, and ultimately exposes a smooth-talking bad actor shady enough to bring in even federal authorities. As the kids’ live-in Grandpa, a retired investigative reporter, delivers pointers on how to conduct interviews and sift evidence while grandly driving them around South Florida in his classic Cadillac, Roberta, the budding detectives display sharp wits, eyes, and negotiating skills. The last come in particularly useful when they’re dealing with their lawyer…who’s also their mom. Both the plot and the chain of evidence take logical courses, and since Dad is a marine biologist and Lina’s a recent transplant from Wyoming, Ponti is able to use their dialogue to highlight the local culture and larger ecological issues. Main characters present white, apart from tech wiz Yadi, who is cued Latine.
An environmental mystery featuring lots of clever detecting, a bit of danger, and real felonies to investigate. (Mystery. 9-13)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9781665932530
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
Fast-paced and plot-driven.
In his latest, prolific author Gratz takes on Hitler’s Olympic Games.
When 13-year-old American gymnast Evie Harris arrives in Berlin to compete in the 1936 Olympic Games, she has one goal: stardom. If she can bring home a gold medal like her friend, the famous equestrian-turned-Hollywood-star Mary Brooks, she might be able to lift her family out of their Dust Bowl poverty. But someone slips a strange note under Evie’s door, and soon she’s dodging Heinz Fischer, the Hitler Youth member assigned to host her, and meeting strangers who want to make use of her gymnastic skills—to rob a bank. As the games progress, Evie begins to see the moral issues behind their sparkling facade—the antisemitism and racism inherent in Nazi ideology and the way Hitler is using the competition to support and promote these beliefs. And she also agrees to rob the bank. Gratz goes big on the Mission Impossible–style heist, which takes center stage over the actual competitions, other than Jesse Owens’ famous long jump. A lengthy and detailed author’s note provides valuable historical context, including places where Gratz adapted the facts for storytelling purposes (although there’s no mention of the fact that before 1952, Olympic equestrian sports were limited to male military officers). With an emphasis on the plot, many of the characters feel defined primarily by how they’re suffering under the Nazis, such as the fictional diver Ursula Diop, who was involuntarily sterilized for being biracial.
Fast-paced and plot-driven. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781338736106
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
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