Book Review | SPARK AND THE GRAND SLEUTH by Robert Repino

SPARK AND THE GRAND SLEUTH
Robert Repino
Publication: March 23, 2021
Publisher: Quirk Books,
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy
Rating: ★★★★

An army of toys, a menacing threat, and a thrilling adventure collide in the high-stakes sequel to Spark and the League of Ursus.

Spark may be a cute and cuddly teddy bear, but she’s also a fierce protector. Weeks after rescuing her human owner—a budding young filmmaker named Loretta—from a hideous monster, everything seems to be returning to normal. But then Spark is summoned before the mysterious Grand Sleuth, the high council of teddy bears, who task her with a dangerous mission: locating the portal to the monster’s world.

During her daring quest, Spark discovers a terrible secret that changes everything. In order to keep Loretta and their whole town safe, she must enlist the help of her loyal toy friends and team up with an unexpected ally. As the menace grows, Spark realizes that Loretta has a hidden power that may be the key to saving them all . . .

Spark and the League of Ursus had a bittersweet ending. Before the dust can completely settle though, Spark is bidden to appear before the Grand Sleuth, the same high council of teddy bears who never came to aid Spark and her Juro during their encounter with Jakmal. Being summoned, though, means the danger is still lurking. Spark knows the fight isn’t over yet.

Tasked with locating the last portal to the monsters’ world, Spark struck an unlikely friendship with someone who holds the secrets to a catastrophic evil that is about to descend on their town and endanger the very person she loved dearly –Loretta.

I love the themes in this series –the familial relationship and friendship that it inspires. I love how kids get to be kids and grow. I also love Spark’s wise leadership –no bravado. Instead, she is humble in acknowledging everyone else’s ability and conscious of their discomforts, while being encouraging in every moment possible.

Action-packed and suspenseful, SPARK AND THE GRAND SLEUTH is a story of compassion, forgiveness, loyalty, and friendship. This middle-grade fantasy is perfect for anyone who held a cuddly teddy bear and understands that they are loved.

Download the Book Activity Guide here.

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About the Author:

Robert Repino is the author of the War with No Name series for adults and The League of Ursus duology for children. He lives in New York, where he works as an editor at a scholarly press and teaches at the Gotham Writers’ Workshop. Robert had two special teddy bears when he was growing up: Bear and Blue Bear.

*Thanks to Quirk Books for the egalley in exchange for this unbiased review.
*This post is a part of the monthly linkups organized by Lovely Audiobooks! You can click here to check it out and be a part of it.

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Book Review | THE MYSTERIOUS DISAPPERANCE OF AIDAN S. by David Levithan

   

THE MYSTERIOUS DISAPPERANCE OF AIDAN S.
by David Levithan
Publication: February 2, 2021
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Genre: Middle-Grade Fiction
Rating: ★★★★

Aidan disappeared for six days. Six agonizing days of searches, and police, and questions, and constant vigils. Then, just as suddenly as he vanished, Aidan reappears. Where has he been? The story he tells is simply. . . impossible. But it's the story Aidan is sticking to.

His brother, Lucas, wants to believe him. But Lucas is aware of what other people, including their parents, are saying: that Aidan is making it all up to disguise the fact that he ran away.

When the kids in school hear Aidan's story, they taunt him. But still Aidan clings to his story. And as he becomes more of an outcast, Lucas becomes more and more concerned. Being on Aidan's side would mean believing in the impossible. But how can you believe in the impossible when everything and everybody is telling you not to?

I look forward to reading Middle-Grade books the same way I anticipate an actively participated lecture. Learning from the students -bringing out their expectations and takeaways- is a constant gratification. This book is not different from that.

Aidan went missing for six days. The whole town went looking for him. They scoured the woods, asked people, and even the police were baffled. Until one day, his brother Lucas found him in the attic, wearing the same pajamas.

At the onset, this book may seem about Aidan and his Narnia-like adventure –the place, the people, and the creatures. Looking deeply, this is about a family moving on from a tragedy. As a mother myself, I understand his parent’s fear. The possibility of losing a child is a nightmare no parent would choose to go through. And more often than not, fear leads to anger and impatience. (Thanks, Yoda.) Similar to any post-tragic events, support is vital. I respect how flawed and honest Aidan’s parents are. And I admire their humility to seek help from others and see the importance of working as a team. I appreciate Aunt Brandi and Officer Pinkus for letting Aidan be true to himself. Above all, I love Lucas’ composure in all these, his understanding that Aidan needed a sympathetic listener more than anything.

This book is also about community and our level of tolerance for one another. Moreover, this is about feigned benevolence -on how we can hold a prayer vigil for a lost boy today and then viciously demand the truth the next day.

It was a bittersweet ending, but overall, I believe the takeaway is more than an engaging read. It was enlightening.

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About the Author:

   

David Levithan is an American children's book editor and award-winning author. He published his first YA book, Boy Meets Boy, in 2003. Levithan is also the founding editor of PUSH, a Young Adult imprint of Scholastic Press.

*Thanks to Knopf Books for Young Readers​ and Netgalley for the egalley in exchange for this unbiased review.
*This post is a part of the monthly linkups organized by Lovely Audiobooks! You can click here to check it out and be a part of it.

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Book Review | SPARK AND THE LEAGUE OF URSUS by Robert Repino

SPARK AND THE LEAGUE OF URSUS
by Robert Repino
Publication: April 21, 2020
Publisher: Quirk Books
Genre: Middle-Grade Fantasy
Rating: ★★★½

Spark is not your average teddy bear. She’s soft and cuddly, sure, but she’s also a fierce warrior. At night she fulfills her sacred duty: to protect the household from monsters. But Spark’s owner Loretta is growing up and thinks she doesn’t need her old teddy anymore.

When a monster unlike any other descends on the quiet home, everything changes. Children are going missing, and the monster wants Loretta next. Only Spark can stop it. She must call upon the ancient League of Ursus—a secret alliance of teddy bears who are pledged to protect their human friends. Together with an Amazon-princess doll and a timid sock monkey, the bears are all that stands between our world and the one that lies beneath. It will be a heroic chapter in the history of the League . . . if the bears live to tell the tale. -Publisher

Through Sir Reginald, Spark learned all about the League of Ursus. And with her mentor to train her, she had the confidence and readiness any protector should have. But the monster that appeared in Loretta’s bedroom is something different altogether. It comes in the night, while the kids are sleeping, crawling from the darkest corner of the room. It has a distinct power to open portals in different locations and cancel all the sounds in any place it occupies. And while most monsters only feed on their prey’s fear, this one drags them away where no one has gone before.

Robert Repino gave life to a story most kids hold on to -that their teddy bears are more than just toys -they are loyal companions. Bears serve. Bears watch. Bears Protect. Always and forever. Spark knows the oath by heart, and she means to do everything to protect Loretta, her dusa. The very premise raised plenty of questions. How did the teddy bears realize that they are protectors? Instead of addressing it, the story chose to focus on the deep love these bears have for their humans until their final light, on kids standing strong for their siblings, that friendship matter, that being afraid is not cowardice, and that compassion should still rule at the end of the day.

SPARK AND THE LEAGUE OF URSUS has enough scare and challenges to entertain its middle-grade audience. A perfect read for Friday the 13th. Spark is the kind of friend kids would like to have. Also, Matthew and Loretta’s motto is something everyone should hear – “Keep dreaming, and keep trying!”

Book #2, Spark and the Grand Sleuth, is out on March 23, 2021.

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About the Author:

Robert Repino is the author of Mort(e), Culdesac, and D’Arc, which make up the critically acclaimed War with No Name series (Soho Press). He holds an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College and teaches at the Gotham Writers’ Workshop. He lives in New York City where he works as an editor at an academic publisher. This is his middle-grade debut. Robert had two special teddy bears when he was growing up: Bear and Blue Bear.

*Thanks to Quirk Books for the printed copy in exchange for this unbiased review.
*This post is a part of the monthly linkups organized by Lovely Audiobooks! You can click here to check it out and be a part of it.

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Book Review | WARREN THE 13TH AND THE 13-YEAR CURSE by Tania del Rio, Will Staehle

   

   Warren the 13th and the 13-Year Curse by Tania del Rio
Illustrator: Will Staehle
Series: Warren the 13th, Book #3
Publication Date: October 1, 2019
Publisher: Quirk Books
Genre: Middle-Grade Adventure
Rating: ★★★★★

An illustrated middle-grade fiction series with Gothic and Victorian overtones featuring the misadventures of a cursed 12-year-old bellhop trying to save his family's hotel from the clutches of evil.

At the conclusion of the second book in the Warren the 13th series, The Warren Hotel had transformed into a giant ship and set sail for the open seas! When Warren 3 opens, Warren is adjusting to the demands of running a floating hotel and is planning his 13th birthday party when disaster strikes--the hotel is shipwrecked on a strange island. To make things worse, his octopus-like friend Sketchy is kidnapped by a traveling circus! Warren and his friends must solve a series of riddles to find the next location of the circus and rescue their friend before it's too late. Along the way, they meet a new cast of characters, including some elderly pirates, a sea witch, a talking clam, and a giant sea monster. As Warren pursues Sketchy's kidnappers, he will learn the truth of his friend's mysterious origins--as well as one final secret of the Warren Hotel.-Goodreads

...

This is the 3rd book in the series, but it works perfectly as a standalone story. After reading the first two books, I’ve been very curious about what happens next for Warren. The story launched from where book #2 left off and the Warren Hotel was having a grand time sailing away. But now at 13, there’s a curse hovering above Warren’s head.

These books are placed as Middle-Grade Fiction. Nevertheless, Tania del Rio made these books relatively easy and perfect for a read-aloud that even younger Middle-Graders can enjoy them. Or even if your kids aren’t proficient readers yet, Will Staehle’s two-toned illustrations can boost their imagination effortlessly. The gothic feel they imbue is rather perfect for the story.

WARREN THE 13TH AND THE 13-YEAR CURSE is a great adventure filled with diverse characters (even nasty pirates) that have rare surprises up their sleeves and an impressive rescue mission. Despite his probable curse, Warren remains resolute, optimistic, and completely kind. His character brings out the good in people and that’s what I love most about these books. People never thought twice helping Warren or doing kindness for him in return.

Warren the 13th series is filled with adventures and with people you very much want your kids to meet. If you haven’t started on them yet, please get your copies soon. I heartily recommend these books.

>*Thank you for sharing this amazing ride, Will and Tania. I'll miss Warren, but I also know that he's off to new adventures. Instead, I'll bid him and both of you farewell.

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About the Author and Illustrator:

Tania Del Rio is a professional comic book writer and artist who has spent the past 10 years writing and illustrating, primarily for a young audience. Her clients include Archie Comics, Dark Horse, and Marvel; she is best known for her work writing and drawing the 42-issue run of Sabrina the Teenage Witch. She is also the author of the WARREN THE 13TH series published by Quirk Books. She lives in Los Angeles.

Will Staehle grew up reading comics and working summers at his parent’s design firm in Wisconsin. He was Art Director for HarperCollins Publishers in NY, the VP of Design at JibJab in LA, and has been labeled by Print Magazine as one of the Top Twenty Under Thirty New Visual Artists, an Art Director’s Club Young Gun, and has also exhibited a solo show of work at the Type Director’s Club. Will’s work has appeared in various design annuals and he’s also contributed to the AIGA’s 50 books / 50 covers exhibit.

Currently, Will resides in Seattle, WA — where he runs Unusual Co. He uses his design and illustration background to create bold covers, stylized posters, quirky websites, and mini-comics to ensure that he gets as little sleep as possible.

*Thanks to Quirk Books and Netgalley for the digital copy
in exchange for this unbiased review.
*This post is a part of the monthly linkups organized by Lovely Audiobooks!
You can click here to check it out and be a part of it.

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OVER SEA, UNDER STONE by Susan Cooper

“But the grail may not leave this land,
but must wait the Pendragon,
till the day comes.”

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Book Review | SPEECHLESS by Adam P. Schmitt

November 6, 2018;
Candlewick Press

How do you give a eulogy when you can't think of one good thing to say? A poignant, funny, and candid look at grief, family secrets, difficult people, and learning to look behind the facade.

I highly recommend this book.

Jimmy is at his first wake. If that isn’t shocking enough for a 13-year old boy, he was just informed that tomorrow he has to deliver his first eulogy. His first. In front of everyone in a church full of grieving people. He tried every pleading to get away from it but shot down every time.

Jimmy’s been racking his brains for what to say about his cousin, Patrick if there’s anything good at all. Searching, he recalled every special moment his cousin had somehow wrecked. All his 13 years, he had to put up with Patrick. So, giving this eulogy is not merely nerve-racking for Jimmy, it is an imposition. An imposition preceded by so many before it. 
It made him angry and defiant. 
It made him question his family. 
It made him realize who Patrick was. 
And how they aren’t so different after all.

One of the many reasons I love Middle-Grade books is that they give me a whole new set of lenses to look through. Viewing things from a child’s perspective is always unique and reawakening. Giving a eulogy for an unlikable person who died is a very unusual subject for children, but induces a profound awareness for any reader –including parents, relatives, friends, even for educators.

SPEECHLESS is a very well-written, memorable story.

Book details:

Title:  Speechless

Author: Adam P. Schmitt

Publication: November 6, 2018; Candlewick Press

Genre: Fiction, Middle-Grade

Rating: ★★★★★

*Thank you Candlewick for this galley in exchange for an honest review.

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Book Review | BAD LUCK by Pseudonymous Bosch

February 9, 2016
Little, Brown Books

Reader, beware! This is a BAD book. A VERY BAD book that will bring you nothing but BAD LUCK. Luckily no one would want to read it as it is extremely BORING and contains NO ADVENTURE whatsoever. No magic. No betrayal. And NO DRAGONS. No flying dragons. No fire-breathing dragons. No dragon hunters. ABSOLUTELY NO DRAGONS. The only reason anyone would DARE read this book is if they are VERY BAD and never do what they’re told. And you always do what you’re told. Don’t you? -Goodreads

Another summer at Earth Ranch, meanwhile Clay is still struggling to understand what he is doing there when he has no magic to pride himself on. But then, things got thicker at Price Island when a cruise ship dropped anchor just right across Mount Forge. A crew of men claims to be searching for a boy who fell off the ship. Or are they, really?

This is the second book in the Bad series. I have not had the pleasure of reading the first book, but I had a marvelous time reading the Secret series almost two years ago. So when I spied this on NetGalley, I needed to grab it at once. Besides, the plot is very easy to follow and the constant need to know what’s next is pounding.  The author’s usual digressions, footnotes, and constant shift from third-person to 1^st-person narrative made this even more fun and easy access to any middle-grade (or adult).

Nothing short of entertaining, this book is a brilliant mix of wit, magic, thrill, and adventure. I do suggest you grab a copy when it comes out on February 9, 2016.

Book detail:

Title:   Bad Luck

Series:   The Bad Books #2

Author:   Pseudonymous Bosch

Publication:  February 9, 2016; 
                        Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Genre: Middle-Grade Fiction

Rating:  ★★★★★


*Thanks to Little, Brown Books and Netgalley for the advance copy in exchange for this honest review.

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