Super sly, super fun.
A secret agent who can look like anyone leads a young villain in training and his questionably evil associates on a merry chase.
It seems that Showboater—a sequin-shedding Elvis impersonator with the superpower of going unnoticed (“the more flamboyant he was, the more he disappeared”)—has vanished, along with a certain very important file. Now, the rival Evil Villains International League and the Heroic Elite Reconnaissance Organization are anxious to get him, or at least the file, back. As it turns out, they aren’t the only ones. Tongue resolutely in cheek, Evanovich pits 16-year-old E.V.I.L. trainee Keeper Chance, his technologically adept best friend, Toby, and other parties (loyal allies or otherwise) against agent-for-hire Ditto. But Ditto is frustratingly able to stay a step ahead, thanks to both his own “doppelgänging” ability and a supportive trio of teenagers who can manipulate time in various ways. The ensuing hilarious misadventures add to the pleasure of watching the antics of superheroes with evocative monikers like Chaos and Joy Sucker (though the most fearsomely powerful of all is Toby’s mom) while contemplating the curiously narrow ethical gap between the tale’s villains and heroes. Better yet, having strung readers along through nearly two episodes about the exact nature of Keeper’s own mysterious superpower, the author finally sneaks in a credible suggestion toward the end. The cast largely presents white.
Super sly, super fun. (Superhero adventure. 10-14)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781665960076
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense.
In the midst of political turmoil, how do you escape the only country that you’ve ever known and navigate a new life? Parallel stories of three different middle school–aged refugees—Josef from Nazi Germany in 1938, Isabel from 1994 Cuba, and Mahmoud from 2015 Aleppo—eventually intertwine for maximum impact.
Three countries, three time periods, three brave protagonists. Yet these three refugee odysseys have so much in common. Each traverses a landscape ruled by a dictator and must balance freedom, family, and responsibility. Each initially leaves by boat, struggles between visibility and invisibility, copes with repeated obstacles and heart-wrenching loss, and gains resilience in the process. Each third-person narrative offers an accessible look at migration under duress, in which the behavior of familiar adults changes unpredictably, strangers exploit the vulnerabilities of transients, and circumstances seem driven by random luck. Mahmoud eventually concludes that visibility is best: “See us….Hear us. Help us.” With this book, Gratz accomplishes a feat that is nothing short of brilliant, offering a skillfully wrought narrative laced with global and intergenerational reverberations that signal hope for the future. Excellent for older middle grade and above in classrooms, book groups, and/or communities looking to increase empathy for new and existing arrivals from afar.
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense. (maps, author’s note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: July 25, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-88083-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
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