Gabriel Finley and the Raven's Riddle

Starred review from August 18, 2014
Adult author Hagen (The Laments) makes his children's debut with a fantasy adventure touched with whimsy, satire, and the quirky love of urban fauna that characterizes New Yorkers. Gabriel Finley's parents are absent, having disappeared in separate mysterious incidents that his guardian, Aunt Jaz, refuses to discuss. But she does pass along his father's diary, which outlines how Adam Finley became the amicus, or human interlocutor, of a raven named Baldasarre. There's also the matter of Adam's creepy brother, Gabriel's uncle Corax, who likewise disappeared, leaving behind a portrait to loom over Gabriel as he seeks to solve the riddles, literal and figurative, set by ravens, uncle, and missing parents. With an unlikely crew of mismatched Brooklyn schoolmates, Gabriel takes up the mantle of the ancient, bittersweet relationship between humans and ravens in order to untangle the even more twisted relationships between human and human. Though familiar tropes abound, Hagen's sensibility is uniqueâthe desk-wrangling scene is not to be missed. There's a hint of sequels to come, but this quest is more than satisfying on its own. Ages 9â12.