Now that mega-tycoon (and ex-major leaguer) Boss Swaggert has outlawed baseball, it's winter in America all year `round; he's replaced ballfields with factories (patrolled by hulking police in modified football uniforms) and thrown the ballplayers into cold Candlestick Prison. Into this dreary world is born little Georgie, who throws snowballs that curve around corners amd speaks only banned baseballese (not ``Good morning'' but ``Batter up!''). Nabbed at last, he proposes a contest: if he can throw three pitches past Boss Swaggert, baseball will be restored. If not.... Shannon, whose dark, looming figures strikingly enhanced the drama in Yolen's Encounter (1992), gives this contest, too, an epic feel- -plus a broad streak of comedy; Swaggert, with beetling brows and a huge potato nose, strikes out spectacularly and is last seen ingratiatingly vending peanuts at a game, under blue summer skies. Knowledgeable fans will enjoy the many baseball references cleverly inserted here; Georgie, for instance, recalls Charles (``Old Hoss'') Radbourn, the 19th century's greatest pitcher. (Picture Book. 7-11)
Pub Date: April 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-590-47410-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Newly minted fans will hope that future myth-adventures will be just as silly.
Middle school is never easy, especially when you’re powerless and your brother’s a perfect God.
Oddonis, son of Zeus and Freya, has never resembled his twin, Adonis. Adonis was born with a six pack and a mane of beautiful, blond hair. Oddonis was born with an “old guy jelly belly.” Elementary school was no fun, but Oddonis’ hoping that Mount Olympus Middle School will be different. Ha. On the first day, he and his best friend, Gaseous, the flatulent son of Uranus and Chalupa, the Refried Bean Queen, are pranked by Adonis and his God friends on the bus and then refused entrance via the Gods’ door. Yep, more of the same. They do make more friends, including tiny Puneous, smart Mathena, and contagious Germes, but the Gods rule the school, and the election for class president will soon make that official. Adonis runs unopposed until a fed-up Oddonis decides to try to beat his conceited brother. Can the Odds beat the Gods? This series opener sports in-line comics and spot illustrations as well as plenty of potty humor (Oddonis’ dog’s name is Trianus, and the name’s appropriate). The whackadoodle mishmash of world mythologies and…other stuff (Germes’ mom is Typhoid Mary—go figure) may bug both myth-heads and readers who appreciate consistency in worldbuilding, but even they will have to laugh.
Newly minted fans will hope that future myth-adventures will be just as silly. (Graphic/fantasy hybrid. 7-11)Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-283953-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Ordinary kids in an extraordinary setting: still a recipe for bright achievements and belly laughs.
Rejoice! 25 years later, Wayside School is still in session, and the children in Mrs. Jewls’ 30th-floor classroom haven’t changed a bit.
The surreal yet oddly educational nature of their misadventures hasn’t either. There are out-and-out rib ticklers, such as a spelling lesson featuring made-up words and a determined class effort to collect 1 million nail clippings. Additionally, mean queen Kathy steps through a mirror that turns her weirdly nice and she discovers that she likes it, a four-way friendship survives a dumpster dive after lost homework, and Mrs. Jewls makes sure that a long-threatened “Ultimate Test” allows every student to show off a special talent. Episodic though the 30 new chapters are, there are continuing elements that bind them—even to previous outings, such as the note to an elusive teacher Calvin has been carrying since Sideways Stories From Wayside School (1978) and finally delivers. Add to that plenty of deadpan dialogue (“Arithmetic makes my brain numb,” complains Dameon. “That’s why they’re called ‘numb-ers,’ ” explains D.J.) and a wild storm from the titular cloud that shuffles the school’s contents “like a deck of cards,” and Sachar once again dishes up a confection as scrambled and delicious as lunch lady Miss Mush’s improvised “Rainbow Stew.” Diversity is primarily conveyed in the illustrations.
Ordinary kids in an extraordinary setting: still a recipe for bright achievements and belly laughs. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-296538-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
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