Funny—but not funny enough to carry the plot’s weaknesses
After The Day the Mustache Took Over (2015), Nathan and David Wohlfardt find a familiar face in their new nanny, who claims to be their old nanny’s twin brother.
He says his name is Myron Hyron Dyron and that he is not Martin Healey Discount, whom the boys and readers met in the first book, but Martin’s twin brother, and he has come to be their new nanny. Since he displays the identical mustache and nutty quirkiness, plus some knowledge about them that he shouldn’t have, Nathan and David are unconvinced. They chart out his wacky quirks, sorting into columns that support Martin and Myron as the same person or separate people (and also types of pigeons). There’s some quality silliness and clever wordplay, but too frequently the humor coasts on randomness, which takes on its own form of predictability. The episodic first half of the book fails to deliver narrative tension—it’s never established why it matters if they solve the Myron-Martin mystery (something Nathan even points out). At the midpoint, Martin returns, and the nannies compete in a one-month contest to determine which will get to stay. While the story has more forward motion here, Myron and Martin are too similar for readers to care which one wins. The eventual solution comes entirely from Nathan and David’s mother. Both Wohlfardts and nannies are evidently white, judging from cover art.
Funny—but not funny enough to carry the plot’s weaknesses . (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-61963-560-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
With its intriguing setting, sympathetic characters, and hint of magic, this new chapter-book series should charm fledgling...
When her older brother goes off-island for high school, second-grader Piper Green misses him terribly but finds consolation in a Fairy Tree.
There aren’t enough young people on Peek-a-Boo Island to support any school. Piper, her little brother, Leo, and a few neighbors travel by lobster boat to a small elementary school on nearby Mink Island, but high school students, like her brother Erik, must go to the mainland and board. On opening day of the Mink Island school, the combined second- and third-grade class turns out to have a new teacher. With her long blonde hair, Ms. Arabella may look like a princess, but she’s surprisingly strict. She won’t let Piper and her best friend, Ruby, sit together, and she asks unhappy Piper to take off Erik’s old ear muffs, which she’s been wearing as solace. Piper’s response is to give up on second grade. It takes an understanding neighbor and the Fairy Tree’s surprising gift to restore her good spirits. Piper’s first-person narration is forthright and convincing. Each short chapter will include a full-page illustration and vignettes supporting the text. (Final art not seen.) Cliffhanging chapter endings lead readers on. A sequel, Too Much Good Luck, is scheduled to be published simultaneously.
With its intriguing setting, sympathetic characters, and hint of magic, this new chapter-book series should charm fledgling readers. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-553-49923-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
Makes one wish for a timeout.
Does a nanny exist who can tame Nathan and David?
Mr. and Mrs. Wohlfardt are at wits’ end. They have hired uncountable nannies, but their twin third-grade terrors are such bickering, lazy slobs that the nannies inevitably leave…sometimes in tears. Enter Martin Healey Discount, a manny with a mustache who claims to be a TABASCO (Teacher and Babysitter and Scholarly Childcare Orchestrator). The Wohlfardts hire him, warning the boys that if Martin leaves because of them, there will be no annual family ski trip. Martin preforms impeccably in front of the parents and regularly tricks the boys into good behavior with his own lazy immaturity. Is Martin actually a spy? Can the boys cover for his bad behavior long enough to ensure the ski trip? Katz’s debut novel—inspired by his own twin sons, Nathan and David—is what one might expect would come from the scribe of several collections of supersilly poetry: it’s episodic, hyperbolic, meandering, and a bit amateurish-feeling. Occasional smiles at a turn of phrase or slapstick moment don’t raise the laughs much above the family’s mildly potty-humor–ous surname. The boys are bratty just to be bratty, and their smirking sniping is more annoying than amusing. Easler’s occasional cartoon illustrations (final art not seen) bid fair to be better than the material they depict.
Makes one wish for a timeout. (Fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-61963-558-6
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
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