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
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride.
Zipping back and forth in time atop outsized robo–bell bottoms, mad inventor Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) legs his way to center stage in this slightly less-labored continuation of episode 9.
The action commences after a rambling recap and a warning not to laugh or smile on pain of being forced to read Sarah Plain and Tall. Pilkey first sends his peevish protagonist back a short while to save the Earth (destroyed in the previous episode), then on to various prehistoric eras in pursuit of George, Harold and the Captain. It’s all pretty much an excuse for many butt jokes, dashes of off-color humor (“Tippy pressed the button on his Freezy-Beam 4000, causing it to rise from the depths of his Robo-Pants”), a lengthy wordless comic and two tussles in “Flip-o-rama.” Still, the chase kicks off an ice age, the extinction of the dinosaurs and the Big Bang (here the Big “Ka-Bloosh!”). It ends with a harrowing glimpse of what George and Harold would become if they decided to go straight. The author also chucks in a poopy-doo-doo song with musical notation (credited to Albert P. Einstein) and plenty of ink-and-wash cartoon illustrations to crank up the ongoing frenzy.
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-17536-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
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