Santa Claus hates you and wants you to die. 364 days a year, he’s a tyrant who forces children to fight to the death in an...
It’s surprising that a book with zombies and talking celery isn’t quite goofy enough to work.
Santa Claus hates you and wants you to die. 364 days a year, he’s a tyrant who forces children to fight to the death in an enormous coliseum. Once a year, on Christmas Eve, he travels across the dimensions to Earth, where his entire personality transforms, and he becomes a jolly gift giver with a bag stuffed with candy canes. Pilot and Huxley have the bad luck to meet him on December 23rd. To get home on his world-hopping sleigh, they’ll need to defeat Bruto the giant elf and Rudolph, who’s armed with a rocket launcher. Luckily, Huxley has a bowl of noodles. All of this is very silly. It’s the Simpsons’ fault it doesn’t work. Kids who’ve grown up on Captain Underpants and Shrek and Family Guy will recognize the formula: Sarcastic comment, self-referential joke, ridiculous occurrence that our heroes take perfectly in stride. In spite of the familiar pacing, some of the jokes are right on target. PILOT: “But isn’t Limbo supposed to be like an empty, blank place where lost souls roam forever?” TALKING STRAWBERRY: “…It seemed like a waste of good real estate, so we all moved in.”Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-545-26845-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Young space pirate Sardine checks in for a dozen more mini-adventures, in most of which she, her sidekick Little Louie and hulking captain Yellow Shoulder get the better of evil Supermuscleman and his rubbery orange minion Doc Krok. Along with occasional side trips to play soccer with a giant Dunderhead’s detachable navel or to rescue Yellow Shoulder, the heroic pirates sabotage Supermuscleman’s child brainwashing machine, treat him to an explosive set of Christmas presents and engage in a high speed chase along the Milky Way that ends suddenly when the Milk turns. In one episode that edges perilously close to over-the-top, a pair of his stuttering star thieves briefly captures them. All related in cartoon panels, printed on coated paper to brighten the colors and featuring easily legible lettering in big dialogue balloons, these episodes might seem a touch repetitious to adults, especially those familiar with volume one (May 2006), but they will keep the younger audiences to whom they’re actually addressed chortling. (Graphic novel. 7-9)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-59643-127-X
Page Count: 128
Publisher: First Second/Roaring Brook
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2006
Any day there’s a new Squish (or Babymouse, for that matter) is Pizza Day.
The single-celled everylad who oozed from the Babymouse series to start one of his own in Squish #1: Super Amoeba (2011) tries hanging with the cool crowd.
Squish’s efforts to turn over a new pseudopod on the first day of school look futile—until an invitation to sit at the lunch table with the six hyper-cool Algae brothers offers escape from both his nerdy moocher buddy Pod’s obsession with asteroid disaster and classmate Peggy Paramecium’s relentless optimism. He discovers the price, though, when one brother relieves him of his prized baseball cap and then orders him to dump nacho cheese all over Pod. Fortunately, Squish has beloved comic-book hero Super Amoeba to provide a moral compass. Mixing framed and unframed panels, the Holms alternate between Squish’s dilemma, illustrated with green highlights, and black and white pages from Squish’s comic, in which Super Amoeba has to make a parallel choice. In the end, both amoebae make the heroic decision. The authors tuck in some morsels of biology, end with instructions for making green slime and provide another sort-of closure for the main plot—as Peggy puts it: “Oh no! The algae just got wiped out by an Asteroid!! That’s so sad!!! Gee, I wonder if tomorrow is pizza day!”
Any day there’s a new Squish (or Babymouse, for that matter) is Pizza Day. (Graphic novel. 7-9)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-375-84390-7
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
