Twins Kevin and Joules Rockman are happy they’re spending a week at Camp Whatsitooya on the shores of Lake Whatsosmelly, because it means they don’t have to accompany their parents to the International SPAMathon. Their parents would (and do) put the barely edible meat-like substance in everything. The camp’s pretty lame, but craft-crazed Ms. Jones, her two batty counselors and a passel of oddball campers become the least of the twins’ worries when people start vanishing and brain-controlling monster-bunnies attack. Thank goodness Kevin’s studied survival tactics in awful horror movies and Joules is proficient with pointed sticks. With the help of clueless Nelson and a secret ingredient you can probably guess, the Rockman twins attempt to save the world from slavering, fanged, man- (and candy-) eating fluffy bunnies. Beaty’s tale of high silliness is sure to please, and it’s dotted with Santat’s mini-comics and spot illustrations, which move the story along. If at times the reach for a larff is a bit of a stretch, it’s all in fun. The hint at a possible sequel will have humorous-adventure lovers asking. (Adventure. 7-10)
Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-8109-8416-5
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Dec. 30, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
“To shanghai” and “charming” don’t usually go together, but here they do.
When two dull-as-dishwater sisters suddenly find themselves working for female pirates, their days of boredom come sadly to an end.
Jaundice and Kale Bland haven’t seen their parents in years, but that’s OK. They’ve kept to themselves and have a lucrative business darning socks. Life is boring, and that’s fine with them. That is, until a pirate named Deadeye Delilah kidnaps the two and forces them into working for her all-women crew on the high seas. Delilah’s in search of a particular cache of treasure, and she’s convinced the girls hold the secret to its recovery. Together the two must use their limited skills to escape certain death and find out what happened to their parents so long ago. There’s a smidgen of Snicket in the works here, but only a pinch. Generally LaReau serves her humor dry, adding some serious swashbuckling for good measure. Sailing right over children’s heads will be jokes like the search for Capt. Ann Tennille, the all-male rival pirate ship the Testostero, or the tattooed pirate Princess Kwee-Kweg. Meanwhile Hill’s pen-and-ink cartoons give the book precisely the right strange and silly tone to help sustain what easily could have become a one-joke wonder. She gives Jaundice and Kale slightly darker skin than Deadeye Delilah, whose crew is a multiethnic one.
“To shanghai” and “charming” don’t usually go together, but here they do. (Adventure. 7-9)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2136-6
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2016
Suitable for displays but bland next to kinetic 3-D adaptations, such as Robert Sabuda’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland...
Snow White, Pinocchio, Little Red Riding Hood, and other figures pose within pop-up cut-paper stages opposite summary versions of eight familiar tales.
Framed in lacy, cut borders, the raised theatrical tableaux are the stars of the show: Little Red Riding Hood smiles at a shaggy wolf in trousers and waistcoat; Puss in Boots presents his “Marquis of Carabas” to the king and princess; Cinderella admires her flamboyant gown and pumpkin carriage. But aside from depicting Snow White in the act of fainting after biting into the poisoned apple, Pioli generally goes for pretty moments rather than high spots—leaving the witch out of “Hansel and Gretel” entirely, for instance, and depicting Geppetto handing Pinocchio some school books. The fairy tales more or less survive the extreme truncation of texts, but much is left out of Pinocchio’s story, and though the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter appear on stage next to Alice, they’re cut from the accompanying one-page narrative entirely. The artist is arbitrary with details too, as she gives Pinocchio’s fairy orange hair (it’s turquoise in the original, blonde in Disney) and Alice an olive complexion. All the human characters are white.
Suitable for displays but bland next to kinetic 3-D adaptations, such as Robert Sabuda’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (2003). (Pop-up folk tales/classics. 7-10)Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2016
ISBN: 978-2-7338-4327-7
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Auzou Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
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