A satisfying adventure for ancient Egypt’s many fans.
In this series opener set in ancient Egypt, a girl seeks a missing scroll she believes may help save her brother’s life and explain the fire that killed their parents.
Since the siblings escaped the tragedy, 13-year-old Sesha has been charming a cobra to divert shop owners while younger brother Ky steals food. When they are caught and taken to the pharaoh’s palace, they’re recognized as the children of the late Chief Physician, and Sesha is charged with the task of finding a scroll lost ever since the fire. Uncertain whom to trust, Sesha is guarded in her search. Already literate and medically knowledgeable, she is accepted as a medical scribe trainee. Befriended by Princess Merat, she acquires allies among her fellow trainees and the handmaidens she’s billeted with, who appreciate her medical skill. But her searches lead nowhere; meanwhile, time is running out for Ky who urgently needs the surgery the scroll describes. Pharaoh and his advisers are worried, too: The harvest is failing, and with the Hyksos invaders established in the north, Thebes is threatened. After an awkward opening, the story slowly comes to life, gaining momentum as the plot thickens, the circle of suspects, allies, and enemies widens, and Sesha’s desperate search expands to the necropolis, a city of massive tombs. Vivid, deftly integrated historical detail about this tumultuous, fascinating era helps compensate for the somewhat stock characters.
A satisfying adventure for ancient Egypt’s many fans. (author's note) (Historical adventure. 9-13)Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4597-4429-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dundurn
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2020
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
An environmental mystery featuring lots of clever detecting, a bit of danger, and real felonies to investigate.
Toxic waste dumped in the Everglades gives a quartet of middle school sleuths their first case.
Leading Carl Hiaasen fans over familiar ground, Ponti pitches 12-year-old Alex Sherlock and his 13-year-old sister, Zoe, with school friends Lina and Yadi as sidekicks, into a summer caper. It all begins with the hunt for a supposed fortune buried decades ago by Al Capone, culminates in a narrow escape from an exploding yacht, and ultimately exposes a smooth-talking bad actor shady enough to bring in even federal authorities. As the kids’ live-in Grandpa, a retired investigative reporter, delivers pointers on how to conduct interviews and sift evidence while grandly driving them around South Florida in his classic Cadillac, Roberta, the budding detectives display sharp wits, eyes, and negotiating skills. The last come in particularly useful when they’re dealing with their lawyer…who’s also their mom. Both the plot and the chain of evidence take logical courses, and since Dad is a marine biologist and Lina’s a recent transplant from Wyoming, Ponti is able to use their dialogue to highlight the local culture and larger ecological issues. Main characters present white, apart from tech wiz Yadi, who is cued Latine.
An environmental mystery featuring lots of clever detecting, a bit of danger, and real felonies to investigate. (Mystery. 9-13)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9781665932530
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
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