Modern kids meet traditional tales with thrilling results.
Valentina has grown up with Papi’s fantastical stories of Colombian monsters and magic.
Now she’s 12, she thinks the stories are a bit outlandish. When she and her brother, Julián, accompany their dad on a hunt in the Colombian Andes for la patasola—a vampiric demon woman with one leg—the siblings become separated from their dad by a sudden earthquake that leaves him gravely injured. They find themselves in a world beneath their own, one that’s similar to Colombia but filled with the mythical creatures from the stories they grew up with. This world is unwelcoming to humans, and they must travel to find Madremonte, the ruler of the land, to convince her to help them before it’s too late. In this story skillfully infused with Colombian folklore, Julián and Valentina encounter a variety of beings, including la mano peluda, a hairy hand that lurks beneath children’s beds; duendes, or trickster elves; and el mohán, who has the power to bewitch you. A terrifying encounter with el silbón, a harbinger of death, has Valentina running for her life, and she’ll need all the bravery she can muster to save her captured brother, reunite her family, and unravel the mystery of Madremonte’s discontent. With the action beginning on the first page, this fast-paced adventure set in a well-realized world will keep readers on their toes.
Modern kids meet traditional tales with thrilling results. (Adventure. 8-12)Pub Date: Feb. 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-66591-705-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Nov. 28, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
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
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride.
Zipping back and forth in time atop outsized robo–bell bottoms, mad inventor Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) legs his way to center stage in this slightly less-labored continuation of episode 9.
The action commences after a rambling recap and a warning not to laugh or smile on pain of being forced to read Sarah Plain and Tall. Pilkey first sends his peevish protagonist back a short while to save the Earth (destroyed in the previous episode), then on to various prehistoric eras in pursuit of George, Harold and the Captain. It’s all pretty much an excuse for many butt jokes, dashes of off-color humor (“Tippy pressed the button on his Freezy-Beam 4000, causing it to rise from the depths of his Robo-Pants”), a lengthy wordless comic and two tussles in “Flip-o-rama.” Still, the chase kicks off an ice age, the extinction of the dinosaurs and the Big Bang (here the Big “Ka-Bloosh!”). It ends with a harrowing glimpse of what George and Harold would become if they decided to go straight. The author also chucks in a poopy-doo-doo song with musical notation (credited to Albert P. Einstein) and plenty of ink-and-wash cartoon illustrations to crank up the ongoing frenzy.
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-17536-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
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