A lightweight tale of odds overcome; too bad the unusually talkative supporting cast shoulders most of the load and shines...
Turning an apparently real incident into spun sugar, Godwin sends a Spanish feral cat, trapped and transported far from home, on a feline odyssey.
A Dumpster’s lode of tasty prawns nearly spells Poohka’s downfall as, after being swept into a sanitation truck, he is at last ejected, his front leg crushed, in a distant tip. Carrying anthropomorphism to an extreme, the author surrounds him with allies ranging from a crew of helpful rats to a kindly cork tree named Señor Arbol, who talks him out of his despair and provides him with a verbally abusive owl to guide him on the long road back to the gated community from which he came. So vivid are these characters that they command more attention than poor Poohka. Over the course of his journey, he is rescued from the clutches of Señora Bruja, a comically revolting witch who munches on raw mouse while fattening Poohka up for dinner, makes friends with a young mouse and clicks with Pequita, a friendly female cat who later follows him home. His weary, hobbling journey comes to an end at last when he is adopted by a human couple and, after a long convalescence at the vet’s, settles into a new life as a three-legged house cat. In contrast to the story, the many small ink drawings scattered throughout are fairly realistic (except that Poohka’s injury is barely visible).
A lightweight tale of odds overcome; too bad the unusually talkative supporting cast shoulders most of the load and shines more brightly than the supposed protagonist. (Animal fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: March 31, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-909428-23-2
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Digital Leaf
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2014
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel.
Sure signs that the creative wells are running dry at last, the Captain’s ninth, overstuffed outing both recycles a villain (see Book 4) and offers trendy anti-bullying wish fulfillment.
Not that there aren’t pranks and envelope-pushing quips aplenty. To start, in an alternate ending to the previous episode, Principal Krupp ends up in prison (“…a lot like being a student at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School, except that the prison had better funding”). There, he witnesses fellow inmate Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) escape in a giant Robo-Suit (later reduced to time-traveling trousers). The villain sets off after George and Harold, who are in juvie (“not much different from our old school…except that they have library books here.”). Cut to five years previous, in a prequel to the whole series. George and Harold link up in kindergarten to reduce a quartet of vicious bullies to giggling insanity with a relentless series of pranks involving shaving cream, spiders, effeminate spoof text messages and friendship bracelets. Pilkey tucks both topical jokes and bathroom humor into the cartoon art, and ups the narrative’s lexical ante with terms like “pharmaceuticals” and “theatrical flair.” Unfortunately, the bullies’ sad fates force Krupp to resign, so he’s not around to save the Earth from being destroyed later on by Talking Toilets and other invaders…
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-17534-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
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Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride.
Zipping back and forth in time atop outsized robo–bell bottoms, mad inventor Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) legs his way to center stage in this slightly less-labored continuation of episode 9.
The action commences after a rambling recap and a warning not to laugh or smile on pain of being forced to read Sarah Plain and Tall. Pilkey first sends his peevish protagonist back a short while to save the Earth (destroyed in the previous episode), then on to various prehistoric eras in pursuit of George, Harold and the Captain. It’s all pretty much an excuse for many butt jokes, dashes of off-color humor (“Tippy pressed the button on his Freezy-Beam 4000, causing it to rise from the depths of his Robo-Pants”), a lengthy wordless comic and two tussles in “Flip-o-rama.” Still, the chase kicks off an ice age, the extinction of the dinosaurs and the Big Bang (here the Big “Ka-Bloosh!”). It ends with a harrowing glimpse of what George and Harold would become if they decided to go straight. The author also chucks in a poopy-doo-doo song with musical notation (credited to Albert P. Einstein) and plenty of ink-and-wash cartoon illustrations to crank up the ongoing frenzy.
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-17536-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
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