A tale with riveting characters and an operatic plot.
Two teenagers in the Paleolithic Era must rescue a fellow villager from a rival tribe in this historical middle-grade adventure.
Thirteen-year-old Tioga from the Allegewi tribe is exploring the dangerous Bear Cave. Joining him is his best friend, 12-year-old Kopi, who’s loyal but not quite as daring. Tioga’s father was a famous trapper named Wroclaw who died while wrestling a bear. Other children torment Tioga about this as well as mock him for his hand, which was disfigured by fire. While exploring, Tioga and Kopi suddenly hear screaming; they soon learn that 14-year-old Hanna, Tioga’s crush, has been kidnapped. She’s been taken by the Mononga Devil, a warlord with only one arm and, possibly, mystical powers. The Allegewi’s Chief Tundra says that warriors can’t be spared to rescue Hanna and sends the two boys on a mission to retrieve the Allegewi hunters so they can protect the village from an imminent attack. They are not to attempt to rescue Hanna, he says, whose fate is up to the “Great Spirit.” Yet Tioga is determined to do so anyway. After he and Kopi pick up the girl’s trail—finding strands of her dyed purple hair and jewelry—they discover that the Devil is a man with an intriguing history. Tippins’ debut blend of ancient history and action will fascinate his target audience and offer adults a refreshing literary excursion. His resourceful protagonists are easy to root for as they defy the odds for love and loyalty. When Elder Gron gives Tioga a bone talisman made from the arm of the Devil, the tale adopts a truly mythic quality. Stone Age facts abound, such as the use of the atlatl, a spear that hunters launched with the help of a curved wooden stick. Gory moments are appropriate to the story (“His [father’s] hair and half of his face had been torn away. Blood gushed from a wound in his neck”), and revelations regarding the Devil, Tioga’s mother, and the connections between the Allegewi and Mononga tribes are continuously surprising. An emotional finale gears fans up for a sequel.
A tale with riveting characters and an operatic plot.Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2021
ISBN: 979-8-64-503163-3
Page Count: 271
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
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
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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