Captivating but disturbing.
Only humans and animals acting together will be able to save the Unnaturals, a group of animals hybridized in a laboratory to fight like gladiators.
Overcrowding, pollution, and the threat of sickness have overtaken the planet. While some, such as 11-year-old Marcus’ family, can afford to live in the safety of the sky, others, among them 12-year-old Leesa and her mother, must survive on the ground. Marcus is an obsessed fan of the deadly matches. Leesa is equally focused on rescuing the animals from the mad scientists at NuFormz. But this story is less about the humans and more about the animals. Castor, a German shepherd with wings surgically grafted to his body, joins Samken, an octopus-elephant, Enza, a tiger-bear, and other Unnaturals in the Dome, where they are forced to battle for their lives. Castor is hopeless until Pookie, a Chihuahua-spider, teaches him how he can lead all of the transformed animals to freedom. Marcus’ and Leesa’s interwoven stories are less interesting than the animals’, slowing the plot unnecessarily, but the individual struggles and the group dynamics within the Unnaturals are gripping enough to keep the narrative moving. While the themes of bravery, self-sacrifice, and honor are laudable, the animal abuse and experimentation are constant, making for a tough read.
Captivating but disturbing. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-225754-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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
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