Hints at the end of a larger story arc notwithstanding, this continuation never develops much steam or clear direction.
Jinks returns to Victorian London’s fetid stews and ragged demimonde in this sequel to How to Catch a Bogle (2013).
Continuing to depict her setting in Dickensian detail, the author shifts her tale’s main focus from young bogler Birdie to ex-thief Jem Barbary. He struggles to reconcile conflicting drives to find and exact revenge on his treacherous former fagin Sarah Pickles and to chivvy weary old bogle-killer Alfred Bunce out of retirement in order to become his new apprentice. Something, as it eventually develops, is drawing the deadly, child-eating bogles—formerly so rare as to be widely believed to be mythical—to concentrate in one particular neighborhood’s sewers and cellars. Scary as the monsters are, and despite several narrow squeaks, luring them out and killing them with Alfred’s magical spear takes on a routine air as Jem’s warring agendas and stubborn refusal to believe that he has any true friends take center stage. Moreover, Josiah Lubbock, a promisingly irritating new character, is continually trotted out but then goes on to play no significant role (at least in this episode), and despite the author’s efforts to relegate the previous volume’s vivid, angelic-voiced protagonist Birdie to a supporting role, she continues to outshine Jem and everyone else.
Hints at the end of a larger story arc notwithstanding, this continuation never develops much steam or clear direction. (glossary of monsters and period slang) (Historical fantasy. 10-13)Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-544-08747-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This can’t be the last we ever hear of the Legendary Alston Boys of the purely surreal Logan County—imaginative,...
Can this really be the first time readers meet the Legendary Alston Boys of Logan County? Cousins and veteran sleuths Otto and Sheed Alston show us that we are the ones who are late to their greatness.
These two black boys are coming to terms with the end of their brave, heroic summer at Grandma’s, with a return to school just right around the corner. They’ve already got two keys to the city, but the rival Epic Ellisons—twin sisters Wiki and Leen—are steadily gaining celebrity across Logan County, Virginia, and have in hand their third key to the city. No way summer can end like this! These young people are powerful, courageous, experienced adventurers molded through their heroic commitment to discipline and deduction. They’ve got their shared, lifesaving maneuvers committed to memory (printed in a helpful appendix) and ready to save any day. Save the day they must, as a mysterious, bendy gentleman and an oversized, clingy platypus have been unleashed on the city of Fry, and all the residents and their belongings seem to be frozen in time and place. Will they be able to solve this one? With total mastery, Giles creates in Logan County an exuberant vortex of weirdness, where the commonplace sits cheek by jowl with the utterly fantastic, and populates it with memorable characters who more than live up to their setting.
This can’t be the last we ever hear of the Legendary Alston Boys of the purely surreal Logan County—imaginative, thrill-seeking readers, this is a series to look out for. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-46083-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Versify/HMH
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
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