Readers may wish their own schools looked more like this one, maybe minus the swimming instructor and the mashed-potato...
Henry, the dapper lad in the black suit with the unruly hair, makes another appearance in Cali and Chaud’s (A Funny Thing Happened at the Museum…, 2017, etc.) latest collaboration, this time showing a new student the highlights of their titular school.
While the new girl seems rather unimpressed, readers may raise an eyebrow or two at the class pet (a ginormous jellyfish), the music teacher—a Las Vegas–era Elvis look-alike with an electric guitar—or the tentacles escaping from behind a hallway door, two students and a dog caught in their grasp. Surely, though, they will thrill at the “shortcut” to recess and its attendant delights, which include swings, a slide, a Ferris wheel, treehouses, and a roller coaster, all up high in the branches of a single tree. In nods to The Wizard of Oz film and Harry Potter, the janitor sits behind a curtain watching and controlling everything, and the office of the magical principal is reached by rowboat that plies a basement river beyond a sleeping dragon. The ending scene explains the new girl’s blasé attitude, but once read, the surprise is gone. Chaud’s delicate lines and muted colors give the illustrations a bit of a Victorian Gothic feel, and the antics of Henry’s dog are amusing. The students and teachers are diverse, though both Henry and the new girl are white.
Readers may wish their own schools looked more like this one, maybe minus the swimming instructor and the mashed-potato machine…. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 26, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4521-5594-4
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As Captain Awesome would say, this kid is “MI-TEE!” (Fiction. 5-8)
The town of Sunnyview got a little bit safer when 8-year-old Eugene McGillicudy moved in.
Just like his comic-book mentor, Super Dude, Eugene, aka Captain Awesome, is on a one-man mission is to save the world from supervillains, like the nefarious “Queen Stinkypants from Planet Baby.” Just as Eugene suspected, plenty of new supervillains await him at Sunnyview Elementary. Are Meredith Mooney and the mind-reading Ms. Beasley secretly working together to try and force Eugene to reveal his secret identity? Will Principal Brick Foot succeed in throwing Captain Awesome into the “Dungeon of Detention?” Fortunately, Eugene isn’t forced to go it alone. Charlie Thomas Jones, fellow comic-book lover and Super Dude fan, stands ready and willing to help. When the class hamster goes missing, Captain Awesome must don his cape and, with the help of his new best friend, ride to the rescue. Kirby’s funny and engaging third-person narration and O’Connor’s hilarious illustrations make the book easily accessible and enormously appealing, particularly to readers who have recently graduated to chapter books. But it is the quirky, mischievous Eugene that really makes this book special. His energy and humor are contagious, and his dogged commitment to his superhero alter ego is enough to make anyone a believer.
As Captain Awesome would say, this kid is “MI-TEE!” (Fiction. 5-8)Pub Date: April 3, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-4090-6
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
A gentle adventure that sets the stage for future quests.
A lonely prince gains a friend for a quest to find a missing jewel.
Prince Lucas of Wrenly has everything a boy could possibly want—except a friend. His father has forbidden him to play with the village children for reasons of propriety. Adventure-seeking Lucas acquires peasant clothes to masquerade as a commoner and make friends, but he is caught out. His mother, the queen, persuades the king to allow him one friend: Clara, the daughter of her personal dressmaker. When the queen’s prized emerald pendant goes missing, Lucas and Clara set off to find it. They follow the jewel as it changes hands, interviewing each temporary owner. Their adventure cleverly introduces the series’ world and peoples, taking the children to the fairy island of Primlox, the trolls’ home of Burth, the wizard island of Hobsgrove and finally Mermaid’s Cove. By befriending the mermaids, Lucas and Clara finally recover the jewel. In thanks, the king gives Clara a horse of her own so that she may ride with Lucas on their future adventures. The third-person narration is generally unobtrusive, allowing the characters to take center stage. The charming, medieval-flavored illustrations set the fairy-tale scene and take up enough page space that new and reluctant readers won’t be overwhelmed by text.
A gentle adventure that sets the stage for future quests. (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4424-9691-0
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Feb. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
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