Fans can still look forward to Volume 3 of All the Wrong Questions, coming in October 2014: fabulous (which here means “very...
How many mysteries lurk in the no-longer-seaside town of Stain’d-by-the-Sea? Thirteen.
Collected herein, only for members of a certain secret organization (for nonmembers: This is a blank book; please move along), are 13 short investigations by young Lemony Snicket from the days of his apprenticeship in the increasingly deserted and mysterious town of Stain’d-by-the-Sea. The remaining residents, having heard of his investigations, bring him cases: Rare amphibians have gone missing; family heirlooms have been stolen; missives have been momentarily mislaid. Is there a demon on the docks at midnight? Is there a ghost haunting Old Lady Mann? As he ruminates, which here means to contemplate rather than to chew repeatedly, over the larger mysteries left in the wake of his previous investigations, Snicket solves small cases; readers can match wits as the solutions are only presented in a subfile at the volume’s end. Snicket (the author, aka Daniel Handler) gifts fans of his All the Wrong Questions quartet of tongue-in-cheek noir mysteries with a Volume 2.5 that expands the setting and characters of the main series while offering an homage to Donald Sobol’s Encyclopedia Brown. Literary allusions and witty wordplay abound as expected, with the added fun of getting to play detective.
Fans can still look forward to Volume 3 of All the Wrong Questions, coming in October 2014: fabulous (which here means “very good” rather than “not real”). (Mystery/short stories. 8-14)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-316-28403-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2014
PROFILES
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Full of puzzles to think about, puns to groan at and references to children’s book titles, this solid, tightly plotted read...
When a lock-in becomes a reality game, 12-year-old Kyle Keeley and his friends use library resources to find their way out of Alexandriaville’s new public library.
The author of numerous mysteries for children and adults turns his hand to a puzzle adventure with great success. Starting with the premise that billionaire game-maker Luigi Lemoncello has donated a fortune to building a library in a town that went without for 12 years, Grabenstein cleverly uses the tools of board and video games—hints and tricks and escape hatches—to enhance this intricate and suspenseful story. Twelve 12-year-old winners of an essay contest get to be the first to see the new facility and, as a bonus, to play his new escape game. Lemoncello’s gratitude to the library of his childhood extends to providing a helpful holographic image of his 1968 librarian, but his modern version also includes changing video screens, touch-screen computers in the reading desks and an Electronic Learning Center as well as floor-to-ceiling bookshelves stretching up three stories. Although the characters, from gamer Kyle to schemer Charles Chiltington, are lightly developed, the benefits of pooling strengths to work together are clear.
Full of puzzles to think about, puns to groan at and references to children’s book titles, this solid, tightly plotted read is a winner for readers and game-players alike. (Mystery. 9-13)Pub Date: June 25, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-375-87089-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: April 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2013
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