A fast and uncomplicated fantasy adventure for young readers.
A boy travels by airship to the realm of his birth and helps overthrow a tyrant in Bilicki’s middle-grade debut.
Fourteen-year-old Ollie Lumenious lives in Jade City, an idyllic hamlet founded by his Uncle Zep 12 years ago. The people of the city believe Zep to be a wizard, because when he and Ollie first arrived, they flew in a state-of-the-art airship—the Silver-Blue Balloon, or SBB—and were pursued by a dragon, which Zep drove away. The people were impressed and made the man their ruler. But the truth is more complicated: Ollie learns that he’s actually the grandson of Empress Leonora of the Western Empire and that the dragon was his uncle’s family pet. Now that dragon has returned, bearing messages demanding that Zep bring the SBB back to the Western Empire. Zep wants nothing to do with the situation, but Ollie is determined to learn more about his past. Together with his friend Thomas Bredley,Ollie steals the SBB and flies it to the Western Empire’s Carlisle City. There, he finds his grandmother under house arrest. Ruling in her stead is Korbinian, the barbarous minister of war. Ollie is imprisoned and Thomas sent to work in the mines. Can Ollie unite the oppressed people of Carlisle City and put an end to Korbinian’s savage reign? Bilicki writes in an easy, informative style, mixing straightforward narrative with smooth dialogue and short but effective descriptions of characters and settings. The story lacks major surprises or dramatic plot twists, but it’s none the worse for this simplicity. Ollie and Thomas are excitable and boundlessly optimistic, and their antagonist is irredeemably villainous, leaving the boys little choice but to overthrow him. Events unfold quickly, and young readers will have no difficulty imagining themselves in the young hero’s place, saving the day. The prolonged sidelining of Thomas (who’s quirkier and less predictable than Ollie) and the underuse of Delia, Ollie’s distant relation, are minor flaws, but Ollie’s escapades make for an agreeable introduction to the genre.
A fast and uncomplicated fantasy adventure for young readers.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 138
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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