Here’s hoping the next installment (Fridays, coming in fall 2015) will recover the series’ early bounce and zip.
Tossed into a faraway land, Celie and company try to figure out how to heal their sentient castle in this third entry to the series.
At the end of Wednesdays in the Tower (2013), the Castle flung 12-year-old Celie, two elder siblings, a couple of friends and Celie’s griffin Rufus into a realm called the Glorious Arkower. Most of the Castle hasn’t come with them, though it was built here. The kids cross a poisoned lake, raid a king’s tomb and survive a forest fire, all the while trying to figure out why the Castle (back at home) has been so upset and erratic lately. They seek historical information, which requires untangling “lies and half-truths” from two angry wizards who bicker and tell contradictory stories. Although there’s plenty of action, all the heavy significance rests on ancient history and exposition, dousing the immediacy of the story. When Celie deciphers a truth or hears a big reveal, the actual information often doesn’t end up mattering: Whichever land this is, whatever the Castle’s and the griffins’ histories may be, clearly both wizards are bad, and goals stay the same. George’s characters and griffins still charm, but readers may miss the vital Castle’s larger presence, and the title is, sadly, purely decorative (there’s no pattern of Thursdays).
Here’s hoping the next installment (Fridays, coming in fall 2015) will recover the series’ early bounce and zip. (Fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61963-299-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
Dizzyingly silly.
The famous superhero returns to fight another villain with all the trademark wit and humor the series is known for.
Despite the title, Captain Underpants is bizarrely absent from most of this adventure. His school-age companions, George and Harold, maintain most of the spotlight. The creative chums fool around with time travel and several wacky inventions before coming upon the evil Turbo Toilet 2000, making its return for vengeance after sitting out a few of the previous books. When the good Captain shows up to save the day, he brings with him dynamic action and wordplay that meet the series’ standards. The Captain Underpants saga maintains its charm even into this, the 11th volume. The epic is filled to the brim with sight gags, toilet humor, flip-o-ramas and anarchic glee. Holding all this nonsense together is the author’s good-natured sense of harmless fun. The humor is never gross or over-the-top, just loud and innocuous. Adults may roll their eyes here and there, but youngsters will eat this up just as quickly as they devoured every other Underpants episode.
Dizzyingly silly. (Humor. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-50490-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A dramatic, educational, authentic whale of a tale.
After a tsunami devastates their habitat in the Salish Sea, a young orca and her brother embark on a remarkable adventure.
Vega’s matriarchal family expects her to become a hunter and wayfinder, with her younger brother, Deneb, protecting and supporting her. Invited to guide her family to their Gathering Place to hunt salmon, Vega’s underwater miscalculations endanger them all, and an embarrassed Vega questions whether she should be a wayfinder. When the baby sister she hoped would become her life companion is stillborn, a distraught Vega carries the baby away to a special resting place, shocking her grieving family. Dispatched to find his missing sister, Deneb locates Vega in the midst of a terrible tsunami. To escape the waters polluted by shattered boats, Vega leads Deneb into unfamiliar open sea. Alone and hungry, the young siblings encounter a spectacular giant whale and travel briefly with shark-hunting orcas. Trusting her instincts and gaining emotional strength from contemplating the vastness of the sky, Vega knows she must lead her brother home and help save her surviving family. In alternating first-person voices, Vega and Deneb tell their harrowing story, engaging young readers while educating them about the marine ecosystem. Realistic black-and-white illustrations enhance the maritime setting.
A dramatic, educational, authentic whale of a tale. (maps, wildlife facts, tribes of the Salish Sea watershed, environmental and geographical information, how to help orcas, author’s note, artist’s note, resources) (Animal fiction. 8-10)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-299592-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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