Atmospherically heartfelt and cathartic.
Thirteen-year-old Billy finds an unexpected refuge in this British import.
Sensitive Billy can’t handle witnessing his mother’s abusive relationship with her boyfriend, with whom they live. Doing his best to be unseen—something he has far too much practice in—Billy escapes in the night to All Souls’ graveyard, where he’d found a tiny concrete hut from World War II. When he’s discovered the next day by an old man who has come to clean up the cemetery in preparation for a mysterious event, they strike a deal—if Billy helps, the man will stay quiet for a couple of days, but then Billy must go home. Billy loves and misses his mother and hates to cause her suffering. His emotions are juxtaposed with the empathy he feels for the individuals each gravestone represents. The text switches from the old-fashioned serif typeface of Billy’s post-departure chapters to modern, sans serif for those following his mother. The frantic need to find her son breaks her out of abuse-imposed isolation, gaining her the support of neighbors and (in contrast to her previous call for help for herself) the police. Love, loneliness, and grief are portrayed in grayscale illustrations, many full-page spreads, that expertly use light and shadow to convey mood. The messaging around domestic violence is straightforward and plainspoken, while Billy’s emotional arc leans into the magical; another family storyline is wrapped up tidily. Characters default to White.
Atmospherically heartfelt and cathartic. (Fabulism. 9-13)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-84-365479-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Pavilion Children's
Review Posted Online: June 23, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
PERSPECTIVES
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel.
Sure signs that the creative wells are running dry at last, the Captain’s ninth, overstuffed outing both recycles a villain (see Book 4) and offers trendy anti-bullying wish fulfillment.
Not that there aren’t pranks and envelope-pushing quips aplenty. To start, in an alternate ending to the previous episode, Principal Krupp ends up in prison (“…a lot like being a student at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School, except that the prison had better funding”). There, he witnesses fellow inmate Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) escape in a giant Robo-Suit (later reduced to time-traveling trousers). The villain sets off after George and Harold, who are in juvie (“not much different from our old school…except that they have library books here.”). Cut to five years previous, in a prequel to the whole series. George and Harold link up in kindergarten to reduce a quartet of vicious bullies to giggling insanity with a relentless series of pranks involving shaving cream, spiders, effeminate spoof text messages and friendship bracelets. Pilkey tucks both topical jokes and bathroom humor into the cartoon art, and ups the narrative’s lexical ante with terms like “pharmaceuticals” and “theatrical flair.” Unfortunately, the bullies’ sad fates force Krupp to resign, so he’s not around to save the Earth from being destroyed later on by Talking Toilets and other invaders…
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-17534-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
An environmental mystery featuring lots of clever detecting, a bit of danger, and real felonies to investigate.
Toxic waste dumped in the Everglades gives a quartet of middle school sleuths their first case.
Leading Carl Hiaasen fans over familiar ground, Ponti pitches 12-year-old Alex Sherlock and his 13-year-old sister, Zoe, with school friends Lina and Yadi as sidekicks, into a summer caper. It all begins with the hunt for a supposed fortune buried decades ago by Al Capone, culminates in a narrow escape from an exploding yacht, and ultimately exposes a smooth-talking bad actor shady enough to bring in even federal authorities. As the kids’ live-in Grandpa, a retired investigative reporter, delivers pointers on how to conduct interviews and sift evidence while grandly driving them around South Florida in his classic Cadillac, Roberta, the budding detectives display sharp wits, eyes, and negotiating skills. The last come in particularly useful when they’re dealing with their lawyer…who’s also their mom. Both the plot and the chain of evidence take logical courses, and since Dad is a marine biologist and Lina’s a recent transplant from Wyoming, Ponti is able to use their dialogue to highlight the local culture and larger ecological issues. Main characters present white, apart from tech wiz Yadi, who is cued Latine.
An environmental mystery featuring lots of clever detecting, a bit of danger, and real felonies to investigate. (Mystery. 9-13)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9781665932530
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
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