Thirteen eerie yet oddly cheery stories from the ever-reliable Aiken—mostly set in Cornwall (her favorite locale), mostly contemporary, and mostly ghostly. In "Lob's Girl," a German shepherd is so attached to teenager Sandy Pengelly that he walks 400 miles to stay by her side. . .and comes back from the dead to save her life. Similarly, in "Miss Spitfire," an old, dying RAF vet is reunited with his long-dead True Love—who makes a ghostly reappearance just in time to foil a dastardly hijacking. And the other spooks here include a chattery Scotswoman (haunting the house where she was murdered), vengeful spirits within the pavement of a road, and a hunchback who was cheated of his rightful romance. Somewhat less effective are Aiken's ventures into other occult formulas: the lethal power of an evil talisman, stolen from a museum during a school outing; the sudden death of a boy's least favorite teacher—caused, perhaps, by his vivid dream-powers. But one of the standouts here is a completely non-supernatural thriller: "The Windowbox Waltz," which saucily packs enough plot for a Buchan novel—teenager Rosemary gets entangled with spies—into 20 pages. And the collection's closer is a brief, darkly amusing daub of doomsday science-fiction: an English-garden encounter between a teenage alien and an elderly minister. True, Aiken's teen-age heroes and narrators can occasionally be too bland or sweet. ("So, our hearts going pit-a-pat. . .") For the most part, however, these are crisp, unfussy mini-chillers—tidily plotted, reasonably varied, nicely balanced between creepiness and warm sentiment.
Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1984
ISBN: 0440201853
Page Count: 203
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1984
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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