A wholeheartedly charming cast steers this witty and preposterous SF comedy.
Siblings in a new, gleefully bizarre city have the chance to protect Earth from an interplanetary threat in Swetnam’s debut and SF series launch.
Clarissa and Joey Straw know right away that the city they’re moving to is a bit offbeat: On the train ride into Fennario, the teen and her little brother meet Cleocatra, a talking cat. She’s definitely someone they’ll need to talk to, since Cleo is in charge of Fennario,and her banning of ribbons prohibits the kids’ seamstress mother from opening her new shop. Cleo’s willing to lift that ban, provided Clarissa and Joey complete a mission to “deal” with The Mostly Monster. This is actually the first of several tasks Cleo assigns the siblings, who mingle with the likes of Donnie the Dogicorn and a spaceship-piloting, trench coat–donning figure called the Medic. Something big is underway: Cleo and others are trying to stop nefarious aliens from attacking Earth. The siblings join this undaunted group, whose plan for safeguarding their planet entails a lot of precision and trickery. Swetnam’s deliberately nonsensical plot drops Clarissa and Joey into perplexing circumstances as they endeavor to fulfill their tasks’ rather odd purposes. This opening installment initiates a story with nominal character development, with Cleo overtly listing the siblings’ individual traits. Still, the abundance of silliness on display is great fun, from the zany cast (including magic pirates and the Clown Collective) to characters impulsively naming things (like dubbing an essential planet Fuzzybutt or the evil aliens Filthbuckets). The narrative gradually sharpens its focus once everyone works together to protect Earth; the settings alternate between earthly regions and outer space. Swetnam wisely opts for simplicity in many descriptions, as in the case of The Mostly Monster, who’s primarily huge and clawed. (“The beast stood upright and wrapped his large clawed hand entirely around the wolf’s head and popped it off like he was pulling the petal from a flower.”) A spaceship’s interior resembles that of a private jet’s. Mysteries surrounding the peculiar city of Fennario and the Straw family will surely be expanded upon in sequels.
A wholeheartedly charming cast steers this witty and preposterous SF comedy.Pub Date: June 8, 2023
ISBN: 9798397637480
Page Count: 181
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Feb. 29, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Affecting and hopeful.
A stray dog finds her destiny amid the chaos of a Southern California wildfire.
Wombat is a small dog with stubby legs and “silly ears / that look like furry cookies”—almost impossibly cute in Bricking’s occasional pencil-style vignettes. She’s mastered the art of survival, so when a mysterious internal voice prods her to go toward the fire, she resists. “The wrong way is the right way. / The right way is the wrong way,” the voice insists. When she tells fellow stray Silas about it, he tells Wombat she’s a “destiny dog,” bound to “find their person / before their person / can find them.” Convinced, she decides to follow the mysterious instructions. Meanwhile, Henry, a boy who’s leery of dogs, loves the bats at the wildlife rehabilitation center where Mama Ro, a veterinarian, works; his Mama J is a librarian. Henry and Barnabas, a fruit bat at the center, are both uprooted by the fire, and their paths converge with Wombat’s at an emergency shelter. The third-person perspective shifts from character to character in clusters of free-verse poems that fully immerse readers in each one’s experiences in turn. This extra-concentrated delivery of Applegate’s typically spare writing proves effective, balancing terror and sadness with heart and humor. Henry has light brown skin, Mama Ro has curly black hair and brown skin, and Mama J presents white.
Affecting and hopeful. (Verse fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9780063221178
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Storytide/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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