The perils of preteen friendship, ghost-hunting, and solving a theft make for pleasant reading.
A ghost may be haunting the New York Public Library in this novel published in partnership with the venerable institution.
It’s the Roaring ’20s, and 11-year-old Viviani, nicknamed “Red,” is living in the very best house, the main building of the New York Public Library (now called the Stephen A. Schwartzman Building). Her father is the building superintendent, and she and her brothers enjoy playing baseball using books as bases. But stories and storytelling are her true love. “Their truth was in their fun, not in their facts.” With a friend and her two older brothers, Viviani tries to impress the new girl in her class, Merit Mubarak, just relocated from Egypt, with a tale that a ghost—real to Viviani but questionable to Merit—inhabits the building. At the same time, valuable stamps are stolen from a special exhibit, making their nighttime ghost-hunting expedition all the more exciting and scary. Tubb, who addresses readers as “Dear Friend,” begins each chapter with a subject heading, Dewey Decimal number, and see-also references. Forget kids—librarians will love it. There are neighborhood references and interesting details about the library building, staff, special collections, and the lions out front. Viviani and her family are based in fact and were white. Bruno’s line drawings help establish the time period.
The perils of preteen friendship, ghost-hunting, and solving a theft make for pleasant reading. (author’s note, timeline, archival photographs) (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-14380-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
SEEN & HEARD
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
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