Adventures beguilingly rich and strange beneath a series of “full-ish” moons.
An anxious child finds a friend, a secret circus, and a mystery to solve in 19th-century Prague.
Ema Vašková has been gifted with an education in the sciences by her 11 older siblings, has uncommon knacks for reading faces and entering rooms unnoticed, falls into fugue states when she’s thinking hard, and possesses the inner stuff to face her fears—given proper prodding. That prodding initially comes from mysterious and wild-spirited Silvie, a girl who leads her on a series of thrillingly daring nighttime adventures…and then disappears suddenly. Screwing her courage to the sticking place, Ema sets out alone to track her down and, after clever sleuthing, discovers a subterranean carnival of illusions and pseudoscientific marvels with which Silvie was somehow involved—and which is in turmoil following the supposedly accidental death of a resident ghost whisperer. Along with narrow squeaks and daring exploits, the author tucks in subtle cues and clues on the way to a classic whodunit climax in which Ema gathers cast members into a room to rehearse the evidence and not only exposes the guilty to vindicate her friend, but, most significantly, satisfies a deep yearning to be seen by her busy but, as it turns out, educable parents. Ema leads a cast that largely presents White. Tooke’s afterword suggests that her protagonist is, like herself, neurodivergent; she demonstrates positive attributes that accompany a label that is often framed in terms of difficulties.
Adventures beguilingly rich and strange beneath a series of “full-ish” moons. (Adventure. 9-13)Pub Date: June 28, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-11696-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish.
The dreary prospect of spending a lifetime making caskets instead of wonderful inventions prompts a young orphan to snatch up his little sister and flee. Where? To the circus, of course.
Fortunately or otherwise, John and 6-year-old Page join up with Boz—sometime human cannonball for the seedy Wandering Wayfarers and a “vertically challenged” trickster with a fantastic gift for sowing chaos. Alas, the budding engineer barely has time to settle in to begin work on an experimental circus wagon powered by chicken poop and dubbed (with questionable forethought) the Autopsy. The hot pursuit of malign and indomitable Great-Aunt Beauregard, the Coggins’ only living relative, forces all three to leave the troupe for further flights and misadventures. Teele spins her adventure around a sturdy protagonist whose love for his little sister is matched only by his fierce desire for something better in life for them both and tucks in an outstanding supporting cast featuring several notably strong-minded, independent women (Page, whose glare “would kill spiders dead,” not least among them). Better yet, in Boz she has created a scene-stealing force of nature, a free spirit who’s never happier than when he’s stirring up mischief. A climactic clutch culminating in a magnificently destructive display of fireworks leaves the Coggin sibs well-positioned for bright futures. (Illustrations not seen.)
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish. (Adventure. 11-13)Pub Date: April 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234510-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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