Starred Review ALA Booklist

Starred Review Oliver and Lucy Tinker live with their father in his clock-repair shop. As they struggle with the loss of their mother and attempt to make it through each day with the small earnings from the store, a mysterious man named Mr. Quigley arrives with an offer that sounds too good to be true: come to Watch Hollow for the summer and repair a large clock in Blackford House in exchange for a very generous amount of money. As the Tinkers arrive and get to work on the enormous cuckoo clock, they discover that the clock, which is missing animal shapes that mark the hours, provides power to the entire house and is much more difficult to repair than they imagined. When a pair of wooden animal figures come to life after midnight, Lucy befriends them sweet dog named Torsten and a not so trusting cat named Meridian d discovers not only the complex history of Blackford House but also the reason why the wooden clock animals are hiding from the Shadow Woods, which seem to be getting closer to the house by the hour. Filled with clever, magical, and instantly likable characters, Funaro's excellent, fast-paced, and twisty mystery cked with suspense, facts, magic, and an incredible, deeply thought-out world ll leave readers eagerly awaiting the next chapter.

School Library Journal Starred Review

Gr 4-7 Ever since their mother died of cancer two years earlier, the Tinker kids can't seem to catch a break. Lucy, the youngest, is always in trouble, choosing to throw punches rather than roll with them. Her older brother, Oliver, is forced to be the grown-up in the family and deal with the frustrating fluctuations in voice and complexion that come with puberty. To top it all off, the family business, Tinker's Clock Shop, is on the verge of bankruptcy. Nothing seems to go right. So when help comes in the form of Mr. Quigley and his jingling pouch of gold coins, everyone is excited but wary. All the Tinkers have to do to earn their salvation is fix the gigantic cuckoo clock that is the source of power for Blackford House, a once-grand home tucked deep in the mysterious woods of Watch Hollow. But, of course, it isn't as easy as all that. The house and the woods have terrible secrets, and Lucy and Oliver, along with a group of magical, wooden clock animals, must ultimately confront the monster in the woods that seeks to destroy Blackford House and the Tinkers along with it. All the characters are well defined, from Lucy's rebellious nature to Oliver's frustrating struggle with becoming a man both literally and figuratively; all the characters come across as real and three-dimensional. The sense of loss that permeates the family is balanced nicely with the feeling of hope and purpose that comes along with Mr. Quigley's proposal. There is magic, there is good and evil, and there is love all woven into a suspenseful and entertaining mystery. This book will find its way into the hands of tweens who couldn't stop reading Jonathan Auxier's The Night Gardener or the "Grimm" series by Adam Gidwitz. VERDICT A well-crafted story that should be a hit with readers who enjoy a a good scare. Erik Knapp, Davis Library, Plano, TX

Horn Book (Mon Feb 06 00:00:00 CST 2023)

When the Tinker family travels to Blackford House to fix its elaborate clock, they discover a mystery involving alchemy, animal statues that come to life, and the fast-encroaching Shadow Woods. Delightfully creepy at first, the story is weighed down as its theme of love overcoming fear grows heavy-handed, and the arrival of a handsome stranger at the conclusion feels tacked on for the sole purpose of setting up a sequel.

Kirkus Reviews

A family becomes the new cogs in the clockwork of an old house's dark, alchemical history. Still grieving their mother's death, siblings Lucy, 11, and Oliver, 13, are having a rough go at life. Lucy picks fights at school, and Oliver is bullied by classmates for being low-income. Things start to look up when an elderly, black-clad Englishman hires the pair's "clocksmith extraordinaire" father, advancing him $12,000 in gold coins. The job temporarily relocates the family to an isolated residence known as the Blackford House to repair its unconventional cuckoo clock. At midnight, a few of the animal figurines that live in the clock come to life and choose Lucy as their caretaker. Soon, the whole family winds up in a race against time to stop an evil monster known as the Garr from enveloping the house in the forest it controls. Funaro carefully lays clues to help readers solve the mystery surrounding the house, while the love-conquers-all message keeps the terror at a (mostly) safe distance. The cliffhanger ending paves the way for the book's planned sequel. The cast is presumed white by default.
A well-wound tale of good versus evil. (Horror. 8-12)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Eleven-year-old Lucy Tinker; her pubescent brother, Oliver; and their clocksmith father, Charles Tinker, are down on their luck-Lucy and Oliver-s mother has died, and the family-s antiques business is failing. When Mr. Quigley, an enigmatic stranger, smoothly offers Mr. Tinker a pile of gold coins to repair the clock at his Rhode Island residence, called Blackford House, things seem to be looking up. The dilapidated mansion is deep in the woods, a dramatic change from their city life, and the family is invited to live there temporarily. When a little wooden dog and other animal statues come to life after midnight and insist that Lucy is now the caretaker of the house, she soon discovers that -There are places in this world where magic is real.- The animals have been hungry and frozen each day since the evil monster Garr appeared, and the house-s giant cuckoo clock has stopped working. To protect the world and their new friends, Lucy and Oliver find themselves fighting alongside the animals in an inspiring battle against the Garr and enchanted woods that feed on fear. While the villain-s motivation has been seen before, Funaro (Alistair Grim-s Odditorium) writes action-packed chapters that create suspense en route to a cliffhanger ending, which suggests that a scary sequel may be on the way. Final art not seen by PW. Ages 8-12. (Feb.)