A tender exploration of a budding friendship between two introspective tweens.
Only child Violet is thrilled to have new neighbors—at first.
When the Walkers move in next door, Violet makes friends with all five kids, especially quiet, bird-watching Reggie, who will also be entering seventh grade. However, she’s stung when she hears Mrs. Walker call her mother, who has anxiety, “a little strange” and warn Reggie not to go to Violet’s house. Violet is a keen observer, especially of adults. As Reggie opens up to her about the way his mother tries to force him to be more like the rest of the family, she realizes that Mrs. Walker isn’t as perfect as she seems. When there’s an accident, it’s Violet’s mother who sees that Reggie has the strength to be himself—perhaps the most difficult challenge of all, especially in middle school. This quiet, spare novel focuses on a relatable situation: Violet wrestles with whether she should try to fit in with her old best friend Katie and Katie’s new friends or be true to herself and her friendship with Reggie—even if Reggie’s mom doesn't approve of Violet's family. Violet's conflict actually mirrors Mrs. Walker’s own, and both realize that it's more important to be yourself (or allow others to be themselves) than to try to fit into a mold. Violet is described as having fuzzy brown hair; two of the Walker sisters are described as blond.
A tender exploration of a budding friendship between two introspective tweens. (Fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-8234-5086-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
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
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK TO SCREEN
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