Good prevails, malice gets a proper—often terminal—comeuppance and characters come back from the incompletely dead in this latest tale featuring the closely knit but harum-scarum Strega-Borgia clan and its assorted nonhuman hangers-on. The daily chaos continues amid a welter of spectacularly destructive mishaps and gross alimentary eruptions. Even as gentle paterfamilias Luciano is being carted off to prison as a mass murderer in the latest ploy from his crazed Mafioso half-brother, the twin pregnancies of Luciano’s ditzy wife Baci and Ffup the dragon, a scaly diva (“I. Don’t. Do. Carbs. Ever.”) with a tendency to blow flames from both ends, provide emotional roller coasters for the three (soon to be four) Strega-Borgia siblings. And with visits to Heaven, Hell and a few places in-between, beloved nanny/witch Flora McLachlan continues her efforts to keep the incredibly dangerous Chronostone out of the clutches of S’tan, First Minister of the Hadean Executive. Despite the author’s near-continual attempts to fill in the background, readers unfamiliar with the previous three episodes are likely to flounder amid this tangle of ongoing subplots, but anyone with a taste for wild farce anchored by a loving family will be enraptured. (Fantasy. 11-13)
Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2006
ISBN: 0-375-83316-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2006
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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Alex’s ability to talk with ghosts puts him in famous company when he and his mom move to Hannibal, Missouri.
Alex, 13, is driven by bitter determination to keep his lifelong ability secret, since it’s already led to a diagnosis of schizophrenia that drove his parents apart and cost his mother a decent job, but it’s not easy. For one thing, his new friend, Bones, is a positively obsessed amateur ghost hunter, and for another, ghosts just won’t leave him alone no matter how rudely he treats them. Notable among the latter is Mark Twain himself, as acerbic and wily as he was in life, who is on the verge of involuntarily degenerating into a raging poltergeist unless Alex can find the unspecified, titular treasure. Alex’s search takes him through Clemens’ writings and tragic private life as well as many of the town’s related attractions on the way to a fiery climax in the public library. Meanwhile, Alex has an apotheosis of his own, deciding that lying to conceal his ability and his unhappy past isn’t worth the sacrifice of a valued friendship. Conveniently for the plot’s needs, Clemens and other ghosts can interact with the physical world at will. Wolfe parlays Alex’s ingrained inability to ignore ectoplasmic accosters into some amusing cross-conversations that help lighten his protagonist’s hard inner tests. The cast, living and otherwise, presents as white.
A patchy tale flickering repeatedly from light to dark and back. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: June 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-940924-29-8
Page Count: 250
Publisher: Dreaming Robot
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2018
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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A rural, pleasantly ramshackle garage is the setting for this lively book. Each spread features the station and its forecourt, with a flurry of activity accompanying each turn of the page: The garage opens up for the day; a bashed-in car arrives; a brief squall soaks a lady, her swain, and their tony convertible. Over it all presides Mr. Fingers, a harmlessly gangsterish type in striped trousers and white jacket. Dupasquier (Andy's Pirate Ship, 1994, etc.) keeps the text quick, simple, and hand-in-glove with the illustrations (``Mick and Mack start to work on Mr. Walker's car. Pete serves the first customer''). These watercolors are equally nimble, deliberately cartoonish in the linework and saturated colors. The front and rear flap covers fold out with an array of questions and puzzles pertaining to the story. Bright, boisterous, fun; for children who take to the format, there are two companion volumes: A Busy Day at the Airport (ISBN 1-56402-591-8) and A Busy Day at the Building Site (592-6). (Picture book. 4+)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1996
ISBN: 1-56402-590-X
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1995
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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