Interactive adventure book full of historical facts—though not for the faint of heart.
Fear of death propels readers to escape the sinking Titanic in this doodle-your-own-adventure book.
Onboard the Titanic, “you” must choose one of three potential characters: a second-class passenger (male, European descent), a crew member (male, race unspecified), and a stowaway (gender and race unspecified), and try to escape the ship’s doomed maiden voyage. As “you” doodle on, punch through, tear, and fold the pages, “you” encounter historical figures such as J. Bruce Ismay, the chairman of the White Star Line, and Capt. Edward John Smith (both male and white) and learn about the many decisions that condemned the Titanic to failure. Doyle ups the ante in choosing the correct path as death lurks around every corner. Drowning, freezing to death, and drifting off into the cold night are only a few of the tragic endings waiting for those who aren’t expert “escapologists.” However, with the guidance of a helpful gopher (an actual animal) that returns “you” to the last checkpoint, “you” get multiple chances of avoiding demise. With more tragic than happy endings, this book might seem a cavalier take on a catastrophic event to readers who don’t appreciate graphic descriptions of death and dying, punctuated as it is with exercises such as drawing “a bowl of cold and slimy noodles on a passenger’s head” and pretending to tap out “She’ll Be Coming ’Round the Mountain!” on Sax’s lineup of partially filled wineglasses. The three difficulty levels show the socio-economic dynamics of maritime travel in 1914, giving fewer chances of survival to stowaways and crew members.
Interactive adventure book full of historical facts—though not for the faint of heart. (Adventure/novelty. 10-13)Pub Date: March 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-64420-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
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
Ponderous and protracted, with more work needed on both the world and the characters.
Two young teens with special powers face an ancient evil rising from the very heart of the Tinvali Empire in this doorstopping series opener.
Pursued by ruthless agents eager to exploit her mysterious ability to read peoples’ true feelings, Arden—eventually, after many chapters alternating between dual narrators—links up with foundling Mako, a budding music mage who’s carefully hiding the fact that he’s invited an invisible smooth-talking trickster spirit named Narrix to be his lifelong guardian. It seems that some of Narrix’s fellow spirits may be even nastier—and there are ominous hints that they might be sneaking back into the world. Several of Arden’s adventures do more to bulk up the page count than advance the plot in any meaningful way, and though (like many of Mull’s protagonists) she’s a dab hand at snarky banter, she otherwise comes off as a rather wooden character. Readers may find Mako’s journey and conflicts more absorbing, as he struggles to balance the joy of blossoming into an outstanding warrior under Narrix’s tutelage with the sneaking suspicion he’s made a bad choice of tutor. Whether his concerns are valid or not remains to be seen. The leads present white.
Ponderous and protracted, with more work needed on both the world and the characters. (Fantasy. 10-13)Pub Date: April 14, 2026
ISBN: 9780593712047
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Labyrinth Road
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
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