A fast-paced, adventurous journey in search of the truth.
Following his father’s arrest, 12-year-old Andy Carter finds himself stuck in small-town Nyle Park, Ohio.
Andy’s mom left a while ago, so he’s staying with Aunt Nonie while Dad awaits his hearing. After a firecracker gets out of control, accidentally burning down an old barn, Andy faces punishment: helping the barn’s owner, Mr. Gilbert, restore a run-down property he owns in lieu of being sent to juvenile court. While working with grumpy Mr. Gilbert, Andy finds himself becoming intrigued by the story of the house’s previous owner, the mysterious masked performer known as the Red Nave, who captivated people’s imaginations with his amazing magic shows before vanishing. His sudden disappearance, which Mr. Gilbert is obsessed with, occurred after Red Nave supposedly murdered someone. Andy strikes a deal with Mr. Gilbert: If he can discover the magician’s secret identity and determine whether he was responsible for the death, his punishment will be over. But Andy quickly learns that solving a decades-old mystery won’t be easy. His father’s arrest, which Andy feels was unjust, has weakened his trust in the justice system, and, unlike in the city where he lived with Dad, he’s aware that people treat him differently as one of the few Black people in Nyle Park. Ransaw’s fast-paced debut offers an introspective look at dealing with racism and ambiguous grief through the eyes of a preteen. Through an intriguing mystery, the story explores biases and preconceptions.
A fast-paced, adventurous journey in search of the truth. (author’s note) (Mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: June 10, 2025
ISBN: 9781419770135
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
Poignant and heartwarming.
Zephyrina the cat, the “Robin Hood of felines,” rescues discarded toys so they can have new lives.
Zephyrina brings toys back to the apartment she shares with Elizaveta and her daughter, Dasha, refugees from war-torn Ukraine. Dasha reconditions Zephyrina’s rescues and sets them outside for three days, just in case they have owners who want to reclaim them. Afterward, they join the other toys in the parlor—the Second Chances Home for the Tossed and Treasured. Dasha and Elizaveta don’t know that the toys are sentient. At midnight they abandon their rigid daytime postures to cavort and play, overseen by their leader, Pocket, a tiny mascot bear made to comfort soldiers during World War I. One night, Zephyrina brings back a dirty old bear, and Pocket is astounded. The new arrival, Berwon, might come from a lost shipment of the first-ever stuffed bears, sent from Germany to the U.S. in 1903—and if so, he’s worth a fortune. In the ensuing antics, the unpleasant villain Picky Vicky covets Berwon, and a kind museum curator does, too, but for different reasons. Applegate’s writing is exquisitely nuanced; she couches profound themes in accessible language that depicts relatable situations. Gentle, generous Elizaveta and Dasha poignantly underscore the human impact of wars. Santoso’s enchanting, delicate, black-and-white illustrations bring the timeless feeling of a classic to this hopeful, humanizing story of the distressed looking out for each other.
Poignant and heartwarming. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9781250904362
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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