Intriguing clues and danger signs abound in a mystery in which a strong, upbeat teenager has every reason to be down, but pushes through her mourning and guilt to detect her way through to the finish. An invisible threat lurks in the small retirement community where 13-year-old Crystal and her mother are lovingly saying goodbye in their hearts to their beloved Gram, who has passed away. But there is much more on Crystal’s mind than sorting through and boxing up belongings, so she is not aware of a hidden menace; her nightmares point to her as the one responsible for the car accident in which her father died and she lost the use of her legs. Unexpectedly, a welcome opportunity for a prestigious art show comes to Crystal’s mother, a prospect beneficial to their household’s struggling financial situation, but leaving Crystal in the care of a neighbor, Zola, and an older cousin just at the peril’s peak. Zola suddenly disappears on the day she is to take responsibility for Crystal’s care, and the various normal explanations for Zola’s disappearance that Mitchell (Gullywasher Gulch, 2002, etc.) makes probable, intensify the plot. The balance between the emotional upheavals, attempts to carry on good lives, the inevitable guilt, and the process of growing up intertwines with the mystery of Zola’s safety and whereabouts. Crystal’s efforts in finding the truth about Zola become self-restoring, but are far riskier than either she or her cousin feared. Run-of-the-mill mystery writing for fans of the simple solution. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2003
ISBN: 1-59078-070-1
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Curtis debuts with a ten-year-old's lively account of his teenaged brother's ups and downs. Ken tries to make brother Byron out to be a real juvenile delinquent, but he comes across as more of a comic figure: getting stuck to the car when he kisses his image in a frozen side mirror, terrorized by his mother when she catches him playing with matches in the bathroom, earning a shaved head by coming home with a conk. In between, he defends Ken from a bully and buries a bird he kills by accident. Nonetheless, his parents decide that only a long stay with tough Grandma Sands will turn him around, so they all motor from Michigan to Alabama, arriving in time to witness the infamous September bombing of a Sunday school. Ken is funny and intelligent, but he gives readers a clearer sense of Byron's character than his own and seems strangely unaffected by his isolation and harassment (for his odd look—he has a lazy eye—and high reading level) at school. Curtis tries to shoehorn in more characters and subplots than the story will comfortably bear—as do many first novelists—but he creates a well-knit family and a narrator with a distinct, believable voice. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-385-32175-9
Page Count: 210
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PLB 0-7868-2427-1 The content and concerns of Levy’s latest is at odds with the young reading level and large type size, which may prevent this novel’s natural audience of middle schoolers from finding a fast and funny read. In sixth grade, Rebecca broke her friend Scott’s toe at a dance. Now, in seventh grade, they are partners in a ballroom dance class, and they soon find they dance well together, but that makes Rebecca’s friend Samantha jealous. She gives a party during which spin-the-bottle is played, kissing Scott and then bullying him into being her boyfriend. While Rebecca deals with her mixed feelings about all this, she also has a crush on her dance instructor. Levy (My Life as a Fifth-Grade Comedian, 1997, etc.) has great comedic timing and writes with a depth of feeling to make early adolescent romantic travails engaging; she also comes through on the equally difficult feat of making ballroom dancing appealing to young teens. The obsession with kissing, pre-sexual tension, and sensuality of the dancing will be off-putting or engrossing, depending entirely on readers’ comfort levels with such conversations in real life as well as on the page. Precocious preteens will find that this humorously empathetic take on budding romance is just right. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7868-0498-X
Page Count: 154
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000
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