Mild chills mingle with believable friendship issues in this appealing ghost story.
Can former friends set aside their drama to solve the mystery of a haunted cottage?
Bellington Cottage has a tragic history, bizarre taxidermy, and strange nighttime sounds. It’s also available on the Rent-A-Bode app, which brings 12-year-olds Iris and Violet and their respective grown-ups there on a winter vacation. The girls haven’t seen each other since another trip three years ago, when they turned a Cape May rental into a haunted house together. Iris, whose new best friend just moved away, is eager to reconnect and indulge in their shared love of spooky things. But Violet—who now prefers “Vee” and embraces a goth style—wants nothing to do with her. Then, strange things start happening. Taxidermied creatures move around. A tree swing slams against the trunk. An unplugged toaster activates with a pop. Setting aside their discord, Iris and Vee investigate. It seems that something—or someone—is sending them increasingly urgent messages. Authentic characters inhabit an evocatively described world in this thoughtful ghost story. Solving the mystery requires Iris and Vee to unravel multiple threads of conflict, from the Bellington family’s tragic, unfinished tale to their own tangled web of jealousy, family strife, and friendship fails. A powerful theme of positive communication weaves through and between the storylines. Readers who enjoy interpersonal themes and don’t mind a leisurely buildup to the real shivers will appreciate this tale. Characters read white.
Mild chills mingle with believable friendship issues in this appealing ghost story. (Horror. 9-12)Pub Date: July 29, 2025
ISBN: 9780063249592
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Storytide/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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