While there are both better monster and better tech books out there, the fast pace and action focus will appeal to...
Monsters from a “Pokémon Go”–type game escape into the real world.
Bex, 12, is spending the summer before middle school catching virtual hybrid monsters in her favorite augmented-reality game/cellphone app, “Monsters Unleashed,” with nerdy best friend Charlie. But after they encounter a strange machine in Charlie’s grandfather’s attic, Bex’s Monster Lab is emptied. They realize it’s more than a glitch when one of the monsters attacks them on their way home. Only “Monsters Unleashed” players can see the escaped monsters (though the creatures interact with and affect the real world), and Bex and Charlie figure out that the phone game can be used to recapture the 10 missing monsters. The plot—can the monsters be trapped back in the game before they hurt anyone?—isn’t big on surprises, but it is big on action, and the chimera monsters are inventive. Stock side characters include the former best friend–turned–mean girl (and secret gamer) and the bully older brother; their subplots are as subtle as their characterizations. Although Bex and Charlie are white, their Massachusetts town is populated by characters with names that indicate diversity. Post-resolution, the company behind “Monsters Unleashed” releases a new game, which will inevitably cause trouble in the sequel, as will the distance starting the school year seems to place between Bex and Charlie.
While there are both better monster and better tech books out there, the fast pace and action focus will appeal to game-addicted readers. (Science fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4549-2612-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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
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