Cole’s ongoing quest to rescue friends and find four lost princesses in the dreamlike Outskirts takes him to a land where the border between life and death is permeable.
Gaining and losing various allies and princesses as he goes, Cole journeys through both Necronum, populated by the living and also spectral “echoes,” and the “echolands,” a sort of borderland halfway house for the dead, on the way to a face-off with the demonic shapecrafter Nazeem. As if the cast wouldn’t already fill a bus, Mull trots in even more characters—including some from his Beyonders series—as he pushes his young hero into a drawn-out series of chases and races both afoot and atop a mysterious magical horse. The author spins a big, fluent, not entirely earnest yarn, but he seems to be stuck on certain plot devices. Infodumps (along with side topics like the meaning of life), for instance, are repeatedly delivered through extended question-and-answer sessions that read like magazine interviews, and so often does Cole hear some variation on “I don’t know, but I can tell you who might,” that even he finally slaps his forehead: “No offense, but do you know how many times I’ve heard this?” But, by the end Nazeem has been temporarily stymied, Cole has acquired shapecrafting powers of his own, and the ducks are queuing for the upcoming climax.
Much rushing about from here to there in this penultimate brick, but it’s basically a smooth ride to the closer. (Fantasy. 10-13)Pub Date: March 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4424-9709-2
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
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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
Categories: CHILDREN'S ACTION & ADVENTURE FICTION
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Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
Categories: CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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