A cliffhanger ending will have readers drumming their fingers as they wait for the next episode.
As in series opener Friday Barnes, Girl Detective (2016), instead of just one mystery, Friday confronts a series of strange happenings in her school, posh Highcrest Academy.
First, Friday finds herself under arrest for terrorism charges. The white schoolgirl quickly uses her encyclopedic knowledge and Holmes-ian sleuthing skills to escape the clutches of the police, but who could have framed her? At school, a series of holes dug all over the campus threatens to injure passing pedestrians, while a new boy, Christopher, charms everyone, especially Friday. She knows that the headmaster would love to find an excuse to expel her, but Friday keeps solving mysteries until she finally discovers why those holes have been appearing and learns the secret identities of some people no one suspected. Spratt continues to hit just the right mix of dry humor and suspense. Her characterization of her protagonist shines: an 11-year-old prodigy with quirky taste in fashion who might just have some real emotional needs lurking under that confident exterior. Readers know that, like Sherlock Holmes, Friday will solve every mystery; the book’s fun is in seeing how she does it. Beneath the fun, Spratt explores questions of class; working-class Friday feels out of sync with the entitled students who surround her.
A cliffhanger ending will have readers drumming their fingers as they wait for the next episode. (Mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-62672-299-6
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A candid and powerful reckoning of history.
Summer is off to a terrible start for 12-year old African-American Candice Miller.
Six months after her parents’ divorce, Candice and her mother leave Atlanta to spend the summer in Lambert, South Carolina, at her grandmother’s old house. When her grandmother Abigail passed two years ago, in 2015, Candice and her mother struggled to move on. Now, without any friends, a computer, cellphone, or her grandmother, Candice suffers immense loneliness and boredom. When she starts rummaging through the attic and stumbles upon a box of her grandmother’s belongings, she discovers an old letter that details a mysterious fortune buried in Lambert and that asks Abigail to find the treasure. After Candice befriends the shy, bookish African-American kid next door, 11-year-old Brandon Jones, the pair set off investigating the clues. Each new revelation uncovers a long history of racism and tension in the small town and how one family threatened the black/white status quo. Johnson’s latest novel holds racism firmly in the light. Candice and Brandon discover the joys and terrors of the reality of being African-American in the 1950s. Without sugarcoating facts or dousing it in post-racial varnish, the narrative lets the children absorb and reflect on their shared history. The town of Lambert brims with intrigue, keeping readers entranced until the very last page.
A candid and powerful reckoning of history. (Historical mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-545-94617-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Levine/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2018
PROFILES
Delightful fun for budding mystery fans.
Only children, rejoice! A cozy mystery just for you! (People with siblings will probably enjoy it too.)
Debut novelist Cornett introduces the One and Onlys, a trio of mystery-solving only kids: Gloria Longshanks “Shanks” Hill, Alexander “Peephole” Calloway, and narrator Paul (alas, no nickname) Marconi. The trio has a knack for finding and solving low-level mysteries, but they come up against a true head-scratcher when the yard of a resident of their small town is covered in rubber ducks overnight. Working ahead of Officer Portnoy, who’s a little on the slow side, can Paul, Shanks, and Peephole solve the mystery? Cornett has a lot of fun with this adventure, dropping additional side mysteries, a subplot about small businesses, big corporations, and economics, and a town’s love of bratwurst into the mix. Most importantly, he plays fair with the clues throughout, allowing astute readers to potentially solve the case ahead of the trio. The tone and mystery are perfect for younger readers who want to test their detective skills but are put off by anything scary or gory. The pacing would serve well for chapter-by-chapter read-alouds. If there are any quibbles, it’s the lack of diversity of the cast, as it defaults white. Diversity exists in small towns, and this one is crying out for more. Hopefully a sequel will introduce additional faces.
Delightful fun for budding mystery fans. (Mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-3003-6
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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