Callaghan’s debut possesses many similarities to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and will likely find a place among...
Stock up now! The end of chocolate is nigh.
The ancient Chocolati tribe of Easter Egg Island worshipped chocolate, but they also prophesied that the 66th cycle of Cacao-Cacao will bring about the Chocopocalypse. Jennifer “Jelly Welly” Wellington lives with her poor but lovingly wacky parents and grandmother in Chompton-on-de-Lyte, the chocolate center of the world. Although chocolate is about to disappear forever, there’s a new chocolate shop in town. Its owner, Garibaldi Chocolati, claims to offer the best chocolate in the world, but Jelly discovers it’s truly awful. Who is this man dressed like a Victorian big-game hunter who sells terrible chocolate? Jelly and her grandmother are on the trail. Gender roles are slightly subverted: Gran was a scientist; Dad does the sewing; and Mum works long hours to make ends meet. Everyone appears to be white, however, and colonialist and Orientalist themes run deep. Chocolati claims to be descended from a tribe of the same name who celebrated summer solstice by “eating lots of chocolate, drinking lots of tropical concoctions, and generally dancing like there was no tomorrow,” while the sultan of Swang, who embodies the stereotype of the extravagantly rich Arab ruler, pays $5 billion for a bit of chocolate.
Callaghan’s debut possesses many similarities to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and will likely find a place among readers who enjoy Dahl’s humor. (chocolate facts) (Fantasy. 7-12)Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5247-1915-9
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2017
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel.
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
We challenge anyone to read this and keep a straight face.
Four misunderstood villains endeavor to turn over a new leaf…or a new rap sheet in Blabey's frenzied romp.
As readers open the first page of this early chapter book, Mr. Wolf is right there to greet them, bemoaning his reputation. "Just because I've got BIG POINTY TEETH and RAZOR-SHARP CLAWS and I occasionally like to dress up like an OLD LADY, that doesn't mean… / … I'm a BAD GUY." To prove this very fact, Mr. Wolf enlists three equally slandered friends into the Good Guys Club: Mr. Snake (aka the Chicken Swallower), Mr. Piranha (aka the Butt Biter), and Mr. Shark (aka Jaws). After some convincing from Mr. Wolf, the foursome sets off determined to un-smirch their names (and reluctantly curbing their appetites). Although these predators find that not everyone is ready to be at the receiving end of their helpful efforts, they use all their Bad Guy know-how to manage a few hilarious good deeds. Blabey has hit the proverbial nail on the head, kissed it full on the mouth, and handed it a stick of Acme dynamite. With illustrations that startle in their manic comedy and deadpan direct address and with a narrative that follows four endearingly sardonic characters trying to push past (sometimes successfully) their fear-causing natures, this book instantly joins the classic ranks of Captain Underpants and The Stinky Cheese Man.
We challenge anyone to read this and keep a straight face. (Fiction. 7-11)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-91240-2
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
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