Longer than necessary but effervescent, funny, and genuine.
Two neglected kids find a sparkly, magical community and great evil in small-town Maine.
Annie’s in her 12th foster home, having infuriated previous families with her pallor and her tendency to attract animals. This current family locks her in a frozen backyard with bloodthirsty wolf/dog hybrids. Jamie’s always lived in the same home, but after seeing his grandmother summon green-skinned monsters from the woods—and become one—he realizes his family’s lifelong threats to eat him weren’t jokes. Just as the supposedly-his-family trolls are about to chomp him, Jamie’s rescued by a dwarf on a snowmobile. Annie’s on the snowmobile too. Jones employs a Roald Dahl–esque sensibility, with evil-adult caricatures, abused yet gentle-hearted kids, and such snacks as “opposite gum” (tastes the opposite of how you feel). Annie goes from “not special”—her name is literally Annie Nobody—to the person whose magic “is our future, our promise, and our salvation.” The glittering elements here are kindness, animals, and the invisible magical town right next to Mount Desert, Maine. Exposition about the bad guy drags. Still to come in future volumes: a battle against evil; Jamie waiting out the year in which he might become a troll; and probably, eventually, parents for Annie and Jamie. Given that Jamie’s almost the only brown-skinned character, more would be welcome.
Longer than necessary but effervescent, funny, and genuine. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: May 3, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-61963-861-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dizzyingly silly.
The famous superhero returns to fight another villain with all the trademark wit and humor the series is known for.
Despite the title, Captain Underpants is bizarrely absent from most of this adventure. His school-age companions, George and Harold, maintain most of the spotlight. The creative chums fool around with time travel and several wacky inventions before coming upon the evil Turbo Toilet 2000, making its return for vengeance after sitting out a few of the previous books. When the good Captain shows up to save the day, he brings with him dynamic action and wordplay that meet the series’ standards. The Captain Underpants saga maintains its charm even into this, the 11th volume. The epic is filled to the brim with sight gags, toilet humor, flip-o-ramas and anarchic glee. Holding all this nonsense together is the author’s good-natured sense of harmless fun. The humor is never gross or over-the-top, just loud and innocuous. Adults may roll their eyes here and there, but youngsters will eat this up just as quickly as they devoured every other Underpants episode.
Dizzyingly silly. (Humor. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-50490-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sympathetic, compelling introduction to wolves from the perspective of one wolf and his memorable journey.
Separated from his pack, Swift, a young wolf, embarks on a perilous search for a new home.
Swift’s mother impresses on him early that his “pack belongs to the mountains and the mountains belong to the pack.” His father teaches him to hunt elk, avoid skunks and porcupines, revere the life that gives them life, and “carry on” when their pack is devastated in an attack by enemy wolves. Alone and grieving, Swift reluctantly leaves his mountain home. Crossing into unfamiliar territory, he’s injured and nearly dies, but the need to run, hunt, and live drives him on. Following a routine of “walk-trot-eat-rest,” Swift traverses prairies, canyons, and deserts, encountering men with rifles, hunger, thirst, highways, wild horses, a cougar, and a forest fire. Never imagining the “world could be so big or that I could be so alone in it,” Swift renames himself Wander as he reaches new mountains and finds a new home. Rife with details of the myriad scents, sounds, tastes, touches, and sights in Swift/Wander’s primal existence, the immediacy of his intimate, first-person, present-tense narration proves deeply moving, especially his longing for companionship. Realistic black-and-white illustrations trace key events in this unique survival story, and extensive backmatter fills in further factual information about wolves and their habitat.
A sympathetic, compelling introduction to wolves from the perspective of one wolf and his memorable journey. (additional resources, map) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-289593-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
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