Aimed straight at proto-Goosebumps fans, this formulaic series opener pits two 9-year-olds against a great white shark with legs. Having lost his bike in a lake thanks to the latest hare-brained scheme of his impulsive cousin Henry, bookish Keats reluctantly agrees to finance a replacement by earning some money taking on odd jobs at a spooky local mansion. The prosaic task of weeding the garden quickly turns into an extended flight through a series of magical rooms after a shark monster rises out of the ground and gives chase. Dashing from one narrow squeak to the next, the lads encounter a kitchen with an invisible "sink," a giant vomiting bookworm in the library, a carpet pattern in the hall that (literally) bites and, most usefully, a magic wand that they get to keep (setting up future episodes) after spelling the monster away. Tilted points of view give the occasional illustrations more energy than the labored plot ever musters, and the characters rarely show even two dimensions. Fledgling readers will do better in the hands of Jim Benton’s Franny K. Stein series or Bruce and Katherine Coville’s Moongobble and Me books. (Horror. 8-10)
Pub Date: April 26, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-375-86675-3
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2011
More side-splitting, nose-holding heroics…in the face of a still-rising tide of monsters.
Fourth-grade monster hunters Carlos and Benny face their greatest, or at least smelliest, challenge yet.
What with “funky wet-cat-with-gas” odors coming out of the ventilators and a rash of students and faculty raving scarily before falling into comas, Monterrosa Elementary is on the verge of being shut down. Previous experiences with cannibalistic lunch ladies and other supernatural hazards have left Latino narrator Carlos and his white best friend, Benny, poised to deal with the ghosts or whatever else is plaguing the school…but the dog-sized, lion-headed stinging scorpions they find lurking in the mechanical room turn out to be only the beginning of their problems. Hale adds new student Esme Ygorre (white and a descendant of a renowned monster expert who spelled his name slightly differently) to the already notably diverse cast, livens up the narrative with one-liners and vivid similes (“Her face went as grim as an all-kale buffet”), and ups the stakes considerably with an entire army of chimerical horrors created by (natch) a billionaire villain. A spritz of cola and a little—OK, a lot of—catnip finally bring down scorp-lions and villain alike, but more monsters on the loose promise further sequels. A lenticular cover image adds melodrama to the light assortment of droll pen-and-ink drawings inside.
More side-splitting, nose-holding heroics…in the face of a still-rising tide of monsters. (Horror. 8-10)Pub Date: Oct. 31, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4847-1323-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2017
At turns comical, ironic, and unnerving.
The Yark, a child-eating monster tormented by dietary restrictions, struggles against consuming the good-hearted Madeleine.
Santini upends the old “be good or monsters will get you” admonition: the Yark’s delicate digestion necessitates eating only good children, which are increasingly scarce. After returning from the North Pole with Santa’s list of good and naughty children, the Yark’s attempts to consume Charlotte and then Lewis are thwarted. An omniscient narrator conveys the monster’s inner turmoil in present-tense prose replete with folkloric motifs. Well- and badly behaved children, a beast’s primal internal struggle between natural impulses and civilizing behavior, and the power of a young girl’s purity of heart make appearances. Propelled by supersonic digestive distress after mistakenly eating Lewis’ mean brother, Jack, the soaring Yark crashes into an old lighthouse (the symbolic tower of folklore), where Madeleine befriends and cossets him. Her love for the beast verges on the masochistic. “Distressed at the thought of him going away, she offers her hand….‘Take a bite! Just a few fingers! I have plenty….Eat a few if it will calm your appetite!’ ” Fleeing, the starving Yark lands amid a horde of abandoned wild children, whose tormenting behavior occasions their own demise, the Yark’s subsequent, adaptive redemption, and his reunion with Madeleine. Gapaillard’s beautiful drawings set the emotive, toothy Yark into moody, cinematic landscapes and intricate interiors. Most of the children the Yark encounters appear to be white.
At turns comical, ironic, and unnerving. (Fantasy. 8-10)Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-77657-171-0
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Gecko Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
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