Hilarious and revealing, this series opener is a must-have.
Ignatow turns on its head the classic middle school good kids–vs.–the populars/bullies trope.
Four students, a teacher, a bus driver, and an Amish teen are involved in a bus accident that leaves each of them with bizarre superpowers. Cookie, the only black teen in the school and a powerful popular kid, finds she is now able to read minds, but only when someone is thinking about directions. Nerdy, overweight, white Nick (who likes to hang out with his funny but overbearing BFF in the safety of the Understeps) can teleport, but only 4 inches to the left. Iranian-American Farshad, systematically shunned once he was marked with the moniker Terror Boy, has amazing strength in his thumbs. Martina, a white girl nearly invisible to all who draws the graphic novel panels that accompany this romp (in which she depicts herself as having horns), now has eyes that keep changing color—and can see the bus driver, who is suddenly invisible. The teacher uncontrollably lights fires, and Amish Abe can resist those fires (and as an added bonus, his horse has developed superspeed). Thrown together by their new powers, the group must learn to navigate their unexpectedly evolving, eye-opening relationships. Even with plenty of near-farcical action—and a cliffhanger—this engaging read is effectively character-driven.
Hilarious and revealing, this series opener is a must-have. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4197-1271-5
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
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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
An endearing protagonist runs the first, fast leg of Reynolds' promising relay.
Castle “Ghost” Cranshaw feels like he’s been running ever since his dad pulled that gun on him and his mom—and used it.
His dad’s been in jail three years now, but Ghost still feels the trauma, which is probably at the root of the many “altercations” he gets into at middle school. When he inserts himself into a practice for a local elite track team, the Defenders, he’s fast enough that the hard-as-nails coach decides to put him on the team. Ghost is surprised to find himself caring enough about being on the team that he curbs his behavior to avoid “altercations.” But Ma doesn’t have money to spare on things like fancy running shoes, so Ghost shoplifts a pair that make his feet feel impossibly light—and his conscience correspondingly heavy. Ghost’s narration is candid and colloquial, reminiscent of such original voices as Bud Caldwell and Joey Pigza; his level of self-understanding is both believably childlike and disarming in its perception. He is self-focused enough that secondary characters initially feel one-dimensional, Coach in particular, but as he gets to know them better, so do readers, in a way that unfolds naturally and pleasingly. His three fellow “newbies” on the Defenders await their turns to star in subsequent series outings. Characters are black by default; those few white people in Ghost’s world are described as such.
An endearing protagonist runs the first, fast leg of Reynolds' promising relay. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-5015-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Caitlyn Dlouhy/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
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