A tightly woven mystery that will leave readers excited to make changes in their communities.
In this novel, a boy and his friends find themselves called upon to rescue an island’s wildlife from imminent disaster.
Every year, anxious Berend “Bear” Houtman visits his grandmother on Oxbow Island in Maine. In this follow-up to Oxbow Island Gang: Winter Crows (2023), readers are treated to a fourth installment of Chalmers’ children’s book series as 12-year-old Bear travels to the island in April. But before he even gets on the ferry from the mainland, he realizes something is wrong: There are ambulances and fireboats everywhere. It isn’t until he reunites with his science-loving best friend, Olivia; his grandmother; and his relative’s neighbors that he finds out a terrible accident involving a longtime island resident has happened. In learning more about it, Bear and his cohorts investigate the site where it occurred, and they find a startling number of dead frogs: “In ten minutes, they had counted four malformed dead frogs, nine normal flattened frogs, and one salamander.” Bear, Olivia, grouchy Director of Public Works Rex, and their friends work together to track down the answers to this environmental mystery while they work to support the accident victims’ return home. In telling this story, Chalmers seamlessly weaves together multiple plotlines involving different island residents in a way that reflects the diversity and strength of the community in the small Maine town. Bear, as a non-native and an enthusiastic learner, provides a helpful entry point for readers interested in local ecology and activism. Hogan’s occasional soft black-and-white pencil illustrations help to provide atmosphere, while her map shows just how cozy the island is. This expertly plotted novel will appeal to older elementary-age readers of novels like Carl Hiaasen’s classic Hoot (2002) and Michele Weber Hurwitz’s Hello From Renn Lake (2020).
A tightly woven mystery that will leave readers excited to make changes in their communities.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9781633813540
Page Count: 194
Publisher: Maine Authors Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit...
The author of the Anastasia books as well as more serious fiction (Rabble Starkey, 1987) offers her first historical fiction—a story about the escape of the Jews from Denmark in 1943.
Five years younger than Lisa in Carol Matas' Lisa's War (1989), Annemarie Johansen has, at 10, known three years of Nazi occupation. Though ever cautious and fearful of the ubiquitous soldiers, she is largely unaware of the extent of the danger around her; the Resistance kept even its participants safer by telling them as little as possible, and Annemarie has never been told that her older sister Lise died in its service. When the Germans plan to round up the Jews, the Johansens take in Annemarie's friend, Ellen Rosen, and pretend she is their daughter; later, they travel to Uncle Hendrik's house on the coast, where the Rosens and other Jews are transported by fishing boat to Sweden. Apart from Lise's offstage death, there is little violence here; like Annemarie, the reader is protected from the full implications of events—but will be caught up in the suspense and menace of several encounters with soldiers and in Annemarie's courageous run as courier on the night of the escape. The book concludes with the Jews' return, after the war, to homes well kept for them by their neighbors.
A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit of riding alone in Copenhagen, but for their Jews. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: April 1, 1989
ISBN: 0547577095
Page Count: 156
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1989
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