A gooey goof, featuring one sticky situation after another.
At the enticing suggestion of Plotty the talking book, two adventurers fall into series of really deep plot holes, with a peanut butter disaster waiting at the climax.
As readers of the series opener, You and Me and the Land of Lost Things (2025) will expect, daffy doings await the clueless duo, whose heads are, hilariously, concealed in cardboard boxes throughout Hope’s large and comical drawings. As he pitches the unnamed pair into one seemingly bottomless hole after another, Griffiths delivers some doozies—from remarkably springy giant mushrooms and subterranean flowers with names like Smellius Buttoxium and Carnivorous Horribilis, to a ravening, sluglike monster with but one thing on its mind: “PEANUD BUDDAR!” Along with persistently dueling with blocks of narrative for page space, the droll line art occasionally takes over entirely with inset minicomics and several elaborately detailed full-spread scenes. The highlights include a cutaway view of the Peanut Butter Beast’s very insides, complete with ingested adventurers and a half-digested T-Rex. Following climactic peanut butter mayhem, all comes round right, with a blank Official Adventurer License at the end as a lasting reward for staying the course. “That was our deepest and darkest adventure ever!” exclaims the narrator. Not to mention the nuttiest.
A gooey goof, featuring one sticky situation after another. (Fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: April 7, 2026
ISBN: 9781250367365
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026
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
With plenty left to be resolved, the next entry will be eagerly sought after.
Drake has been selected by the king to serve as a Dragon Master, quite a change for an 8-year-old farmer boy.
The dragons are a secret, and the reason King Roland has them is a mystery, but what is clear is that the Dragon Stone has identified Drake as one of the rare few children who have a special connection with dragons and the ability to serve as a trainer. Drake’s dragon is a long brown creature with, at first, no particular talents that Drake can identify. He calls the dragon Worm. It isn’t long before Drake begins to realize he has a very strong connection with Worm and can share what seem to be his dragon’s thoughts. After one of the other Dragon Masters decides to illicitly take the dragons outside, disaster strikes. The cave they are passing through collapses, blocking the passageway, and then Worm’s special talent becomes evident. The first of a new series of early chapter books, this entry is sure to attract fans. Brief chapters, large print, lots of action, attractive illustrations in every spread, including a maplike panorama, an enviable protagonist—who wouldn’t want to be a Dragon Master?—all combine to make an entertaining read.
With plenty left to be resolved, the next entry will be eagerly sought after. (Fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-64624-6
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Branches/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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