An SF–infused tale that proves both entertaining and educational.
Time-traveling siblings race to save the world’s future by restoring historical events in this third installment of a middle-grade fantasy series.
After discovering the eye of Ra, Sarah and her younger brother, John, traveled through time and space to ancient lands. They embarked on adventures and saved the planet, so now they can be typical kids in California—if their mom scores a teaching gig there. But apparently there’s more for the siblings to do. Two aging, time-traveling strangers show up and ask for their help. In 2049, a solar flare interrupts a demonstration of a time-slowing device. This catastrophic event not only wipes out the future beyond 2049, but also transports people at the demonstration into the past. Toci, a woman in early-16th-century Mexico, plans to lead the Aztecs in defeating Cortés before he slaughters them. Sadly, this tragedy must occur, as it’s a consequential part of history’s “story lines.” Sarah and John travel back in time to stop Toci, but this smart and resourceful Aztec scholar has already anticipated innovative adversaries and is determined to take down Cortés. Gartner wisely simplifies his briskly paced tale, which zeroes in on a single “mission.” Along with lessening potential time-traveling complications, the move paves the way for additional quests in future volumes. This book is primed for younger readers, highlighting real-life customs and places as well as the Aztecs’ Nahuatl language (with helpful phonetic spellings trailing certain words). The author, meanwhile, paints a sublime portrait of old Mexico and its people: “Canoes drifted on canals like the pictures he’d seen of Venice in Italy….Farther out into the lake, men cast nets and brought up flopping silver fish, their scales sparkling in the sun.” As in earlier installments, the author includes a recipe—xocolatl, a spicy, nonsweet hot chocolate Toci deems an “acquired taste.”
An SF–infused tale that proves both entertaining and educational.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-73415-527-3
Page Count: 262
Publisher: Crescent Vista Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Unforgettably quirky, fast-paced fun.
In a race against their enemies, the Porch girls must find a peculiar pearl in order to foil a fiendish plot.
After defeating a monstrous Kyrgalops in The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science (2024), Gertrude, Eugenia, and Dee-Dee Porch find themselves (after a series of madcap events) at Lake Kagloopy’s Purple Pearl Hotel with their mentor, Millicent Quibb. Quibb informs the trio that they must find the titular pearl before the members of their evil mad-scientist rivals, the KRA, do. If they fail, the KRA (whose members include the malevolent mayor, Majestina DeWeen, and her slimy sycophantic lawyer, Ashley Cookie) plans to use the gem to bestow the Gift of Endless Vibrancy on the villainous Talon Sharktūth. Hilarity ensues as the Porches attend the annual Shrimp Ball, encounter Umbrella Turkeys, search for Cloudite (floating cloud rocks), and don invisible but smelly woolen coats. Jokes aside, the girls’ story is intriguing, offering more clues to their mysterious backgrounds and tantalizing tidbits promising later adventures. McKinnon offers bountiful backstory (alongside a running joke to encourage readers to pick up the preceding volume) and enough guffaw-inducing jokes, zany footnotes, and creative jargon to enthrall readers both new and old with her delightful sophomore effort. Mixing humor, found family, and well-wrought worldbuilding, this sequel is a certain crowd pleaser. Final art not seen; in the previous book, the grayscale illustrations showed the girls with varying skin tones.
Unforgettably quirky, fast-paced fun. (appendices) (Adventure. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9780316555296
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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