Fast-paced and fun-filled, a delicious read for middle graders, foodies or not.
In Part 2 of this three-part series, only three contestants remain in the running for the “Next Best Junior Chef” competition. Who will be the next to go?
Caroline, Oliver, and Rae are back at the studio. (Caroline appears to be black, while Oliver and Rae seem to be white.) This round is different, though. The contestants are not nervous anymore, and everyone misses Tate, who was eliminated in the first round. However, things quickly ramp up, and no one has time to wallow: the competition schedule is packed from the get-go. The challenges include: cooking with only one of the elements—fire, water, or (hot) air; replicating one another’s favorite comfort foods; and creating a tasty three-course meal out of food-pantry items. As the contestants face each challenge, they take their mentor chefs’ advice to heart and show “real out of the box thinking,” “tap into [their] creative spirit,” and “innovate.” Over the course of the week, all three learn a lot in and out of the kitchen, conveyed easily in the breezy third-person narrative, which is punctuated by both spot illustrations and reality TV–like direct-address speeches from each contestant. Each character grows and gives 110 percent, but in the end, one of them must go, and readers will be as invested as the three kids in who that will be.
Fast-paced and fun-filled, a delicious read for middle graders, foodies or not. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-544-98028-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
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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