An unhappy blend of an imitative story and mediocre writing.
When an impulsive bet sets an ancient prophecy in motion, one boy might be all that stands between a small town and the forces of evil.
Twelve-year-old Will Wilder has been seeing shadowy creatures in his peripheral vision all his life. Doctors and his parents have attempted to explain them away as the symptoms of fatigue, but when the dark shapes begin attacking the town, Will is the only one who can fight them. However, if he is going to follow in the footsteps of his relic-hunting great-grandfather and combat the rising evil, Will is going to need his loyal friends, his tough-as-nails great-aunt Lucille, his intelligence, and a good measure of faith. Unfortunately, this too-familiar adventure is hobbled by several significant problems. Action scenes are hampered by odd pacing, poor description, and simplistic puzzles, while the quieter scenes are filled with cringeworthy dialogue and improbable characters. Readers will be continually frustrated by Will’s mindless rebelliousness, Aunt Lucille’s ineffectual mentoring, and the one-dimensionality of Will’s friends. Even the forces of evil seem to lack any real conviction. Includes black-and-white illustrations.
An unhappy blend of an imitative story and mediocre writing. (Fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: March 8, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-553-53959-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 16, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
The journey is even gently funny—Omakayas’s brother spends much of the year with a porcupine on his head. Charming and...
This third entry in the Birchbark House series takes Omakayas and her family west from their home on the Island of the Golden-Breasted Woodpecker, away from land the U.S. government has claimed.
Difficulties abound; the unknown landscape is fraught with danger, and they are nearing hostile Bwaanag territory. Omakayas’s family is not only close, but growing: The travelers adopt two young chimookoman (white) orphans along the way. When treachery leaves them starving and alone in a northern Minnesota winter, it will take all of their abilities and love to survive. The heartwarming account of Omakayas’s year of travel explores her changing family relationships and culminates in her first moon, the onset of puberty. It would be understandable if this darkest-yet entry in Erdrich’s response to the Little House books were touched by bitterness, yet this gladdening story details Omakayas’s coming-of-age with appealing optimism.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-06-029787-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2008
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