In vital respects, very like The Curse of the Blue Figurine (p. J-112), last season's spooky debut of young Johnny Dixon and his eccentric old neighbor Professor Childermass; but a letdown only on that score. The new old mystery the Professor lays before Johnny concerns the missing will of H. Blagwell Glomus, cereal tycoon and demonology adept—who may have left three odd objects as a clue, or may have left the objects merely to annoy his relatives. Johnny hasn't time to puzzle it out before he finds his grandmother acting strange, the victim of a brain tumor, and his own worries mount: his mother is dead, his father is a pilot in Korea, and now? To distract him, the Professor arranges a week's stay in the White Mountains with the Boy Scouts; next to the camp, unsuspected, is the derelict Glomus estate; calling to tell the Professor, Johnny is eyed darkly by a young man and hotel-keeper Mrs. Woodley; and when he and Fergie, a fellow odd-fact collector and a welcome friend, sneak out to the estate at night, the young man is waiting for them—with a gun. Faced down, he tells them he's Chad Glomus, grandson of "good old H. Blagwell"; warns of a malevolent Guardian at loose; and, with "long, loud, hideous yells and shrieks," vanishes. A crazy joke? Or for real? Home again, Johnny learns that his father is missing in Korea—and panics: if his grandmother dies, his grandfather will die too, and he'll be all alone. But the $10,000 reward for finding the will would pay for the best brain surgeon; so, aware that he's not rational, he heads back alone to New Hampshire, and into the clutches of Mrs. Woodley, old man Glomus' sister and now the Guardian's keeper. . . where, in a fiery finale, the Professor and Fergie find him, and the will is destroyed. Then, tucking in the personal loose ends, Bellairs has Johnny get the reward anyhow—and has his father appear unheralded at the door. The usual taut narrative, intriguing puzzle, interesting types—but risky in that Johnny's psyche comes to seem part of the pattern.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1983
ISBN: 1617563285
Page Count: 126
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1983
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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