A rousing and wholesome sequel.
The fearless apprentices are back with more adventures as they try and prove themselves as heroes.
Moxie Battleborne has become stronger, wielding her weapon like a proper Level 2 hero; Pan Silversnow, particular as ever, has increased her abilities—but Fart is still working on beginners’ skills. It’s been one month since they’ve been on their own after their masters were killed by goblins, and Fart yearns to be further along, mastering the most difficult spells. Now that the three have more experience under their belts, the Great and Powerful Kevin sends our favorite phibling assistant, TickTock, to retrieve the heroic trio for his next perilous quest. Kevin needs the barf of a bedazzler, a rare and potentially deadly creature. The trio sets off to the city of Wetwater in search of Diremaw the Dread, a menacing pirate captain who supposedly knows the whereabouts of a bedazzler. Along the way, they are kidnapped by muck elves, made to defeat the muck man SquishRabble, and robbed by a mischievous crew. Through it all, the friends stick together, overcoming assumptions about themselves and one another. Simple, humorous text and compelling action sequences from start to finish make this a fun, accessible read. Black-and-white illustrations convey helpful information in an amusing and succinct manner, often extending the meaning of the text. Pan is cued as Asian; Moxie appears White; Fart reads as Black.
A rousing and wholesome sequel. (Fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-20638-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
Epic lunacy.
Will extragalactic rats eat the moon?
Can a cybernetic toenail clipper find a worthy purpose in the vast universe? Will the first feline astronaut ever get a slice of pizza? Read on. Reworked from the Live Cartoon series of homespun video shorts released on Instagram in 2020 but retaining that “we’re making this up as we go” quality, the episodic tale begins with the electrifying discovery that our moon is being nibbled away. Off blast one strong, silent, furry hero—“Meow”—and a stowaway robot to our nearest celestial neighbor to hook up with the imperious Queen of the Moon and head toward the dark side, past challenges from pirates on the Sea of Tranquility and a sphinx with a riddle (“It weighs a ton, but floats on air. / It’s bald but has a lot of hair.” The answer? “Meow”). They endure multiple close but frustratingly glancing encounters with pizza and finally deliver the malign, multiheaded Rat King and its toothy armies to a suitable fate. Cue the massive pizza party! Aside from one pirate captain and a general back on Earth, the human and humanoid cast in Harris’ loosely drawn cartoon panels, from the appropriately moon-faced queen on, is light skinned. Merch, music, and the original episodes are available on an associated website.
Epic lunacy. (Graphic science fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-308408-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
A waggish tale with a serious (and timely) theme.
An age-old rivalry is reluctantly put aside when two young vacationers are lost in the wilderness.
Anthropomorphic—in body if definitely not behavior—Dogg Scout Oscar and pampered Molly Hissleton stray from their separate camps, meet by chance in a trackless magic forest, and almost immediately recognize that their only chance of survival, distasteful as the notion may be, lies in calling a truce. Patterson and Grabenstein really work the notion here that cooperation is better than prejudice founded on ignorance and habit, interspersing explicit exchanges on the topic while casting the squabbling pair with complementary abilities that come out as they face challenges ranging from finding food to escaping such predators as a mountain lion and a pack of vicious “weaselboars.” By the time they cross a wide river (on a raft steered by “Old Jim,” an otter whose homespun utterances are generally cribbed from Mark Twain—an uneasy reference) back to civilization, the two are BFFs. But can that friendship survive the return, with all the social and familial pressures to resume the old enmity? A climactic cage-match–style confrontation before a worked-up multispecies audience provides the answer. In the illustrations (not seen in finished form) López plops wide-eyed animal heads atop clothed, more or less human forms and adds dialogue balloons for punchlines.
A waggish tale with a serious (and timely) theme. (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-41156-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
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