Blimey, no Harry Potter competition here, just a light encounter with British humor no amount of American vocabulary can...
What happens when magic goes berserk?
In the case of Mr. Hardbattle’s old and dusty bookshop, where magic has taken up residence, its behavior is erratic, ranging from mischievous to uncontrollable. Staples play a skipping game, books read themselves and thumbtacks attack bare feet. That's tame, though, compared to inanimate objects’ coming to life, the second-to-last step’s turning to custard and, worst of all, The Smell (individually offensive to each person who comes into the shop). When Mr. Hardbattle ventures forth to find a new home for the magic, Miss Quint and schoolboy Arthur take over the shop and discover they can bring book characters to life. Bedlam ensues when a motley collection of fictional creations overruns the bookshop, and three miscreants engineer a series of burglaries. How to foil uppity Mrs. Voysey-Brown, Jimmy the bellhop and Mr. Claggitt, a mountaineer? A plot to catch them in the act works and everyone and everything returns to (almost) normal. In the thick of the twists, the magic itself becomes a character, directing and redirecting the action, which is most of the fun here. Though the novelis set in the quaint (fictional) English town of Plumford and oozes English coziness from every pore, it has, alas, been Americanized—a shame.
Blimey, no Harry Potter competition here, just a light encounter with British humor no amount of American vocabulary can disguise. (Magical adventure. 8-11)Pub Date: July 19, 2011
ISBN: 948-1-59990-629-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2011
Alert readers will find the implicit morals: know your audience, mostly, but also never underestimate the power of “rock”...
The theme of persistence (for better or worse) links four tales of magic, trickery, and near disasters.
Lachenmeyer freely borrows familiar folkloric elements, subjecting them to mildly comical twists. In the nearly wordless “Hip Hop Wish,” a frog inadvertently rubs a magic lamp and finds itself saddled with an importunate genie eager to shower it with inappropriate goods and riches. In the title tale, an increasingly annoyed music-hating witch transforms a persistent minstrel into a still-warbling cow, horse, sheep, goat, pig, duck, and rock in succession—then is horrified to catch herself humming a tune. Athesius the sorcerer outwits Warthius, a rival trying to steal his spells via a parrot, by casting silly ones in Ig-pay Atin-lay in the third episode, and in the finale, a painter’s repeated efforts to create a flattering portrait of an ogre king nearly get him thrown into a dungeon…until he suddenly understands what an ogre’s idea of “flattering” might be. The narratives, dialogue, and sound effects leave plenty of elbow room in Blocker’s big, brightly colored panels for the expressive animal and human(ish) figures—most of the latter being light skinned except for the golden genie, the blue ogre, and several people of color in the “Sorcerer’s New Pet.”
Alert readers will find the implicit morals: know your audience, mostly, but also never underestimate the power of “rock” music. (Graphic short stories. 8-10)Pub Date: June 18, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-59643-750-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: April 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
Ordinary kids in an extraordinary setting: still a recipe for bright achievements and belly laughs.
Rejoice! 25 years later, Wayside School is still in session, and the children in Mrs. Jewls’ 30th-floor classroom haven’t changed a bit.
The surreal yet oddly educational nature of their misadventures hasn’t either. There are out-and-out rib ticklers, such as a spelling lesson featuring made-up words and a determined class effort to collect 1 million nail clippings. Additionally, mean queen Kathy steps through a mirror that turns her weirdly nice and she discovers that she likes it, a four-way friendship survives a dumpster dive after lost homework, and Mrs. Jewls makes sure that a long-threatened “Ultimate Test” allows every student to show off a special talent. Episodic though the 30 new chapters are, there are continuing elements that bind them—even to previous outings, such as the note to an elusive teacher Calvin has been carrying since Sideways Stories From Wayside School (1978) and finally delivers. Add to that plenty of deadpan dialogue (“Arithmetic makes my brain numb,” complains Dameon. “That’s why they’re called ‘numb-ers,’ ” explains D.J.) and a wild storm from the titular cloud that shuffles the school’s contents “like a deck of cards,” and Sachar once again dishes up a confection as scrambled and delicious as lunch lady Miss Mush’s improvised “Rainbow Stew.” Diversity is primarily conveyed in the illustrations.
Ordinary kids in an extraordinary setting: still a recipe for bright achievements and belly laughs. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-296538-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
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