A miss.
A new middle-grade adventure series kicks off.
The story begins with a flashback to 1934, when a greedy white geologist, Gordon Kattrick, hired by an oil company, hires a few locals to assist him on a private expedition to scout precious stones along the San Juan River in Utah. They discover a secret cavern full of petroglyphs, ancient pottery, and rare stones, but falling rocks trap the men, never to be seen again. The present-day storyline commences when a wilderness rafting company sponsors a trip for local high school students to the same area of the mysterious disappearance. While on the rafting trip, white, hypertalented 14-year-old Mogi Franklin and his Navajo friend Frank discover some of these rare stones in the bottom of a small pool of rainwater. A mysterious stranger disturbs the camp at night, only discovered as a figure in a blurry photo accidentally taken by Mogi. As Mogi and friends try to solve the mystery of the “ghost” in the photo, an almost deadly twist leaves them to believe it may be connected to the missing men from the 1934 expedition. Willerton’s story starts slow, drenched in expository details that risk losing readers. The Native American characters in the story, both past and present, stereotypically serve as the backdrop cultural advisers to the lead white characters, robbing this Navajo landscape mystery of much of its potential depth.
A miss. (Adventure. 10-14)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-938288-81-4
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Terra Nova
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride.
Zipping back and forth in time atop outsized robo–bell bottoms, mad inventor Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) legs his way to center stage in this slightly less-labored continuation of episode 9.
The action commences after a rambling recap and a warning not to laugh or smile on pain of being forced to read Sarah Plain and Tall. Pilkey first sends his peevish protagonist back a short while to save the Earth (destroyed in the previous episode), then on to various prehistoric eras in pursuit of George, Harold and the Captain. It’s all pretty much an excuse for many butt jokes, dashes of off-color humor (“Tippy pressed the button on his Freezy-Beam 4000, causing it to rise from the depths of his Robo-Pants”), a lengthy wordless comic and two tussles in “Flip-o-rama.” Still, the chase kicks off an ice age, the extinction of the dinosaurs and the Big Bang (here the Big “Ka-Bloosh!”). It ends with a harrowing glimpse of what George and Harold would become if they decided to go straight. The author also chucks in a poopy-doo-doo song with musical notation (credited to Albert P. Einstein) and plenty of ink-and-wash cartoon illustrations to crank up the ongoing frenzy.
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-17536-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
Exciting, if largely unexplained, adventures fill this Greek mythology–inspired boarding school fantasy.
Can Penelope survive her first, disaster-ridden months at Anaximander’s Academy, where graduates earn gifts from their Greek god patrons?
In this series opener, 13-year-old Penelope Weaver and her twin brother, Paris, eagerly anticipate joining Anaximander’s intellectual and well-ordered Athena Hall, like their parents before them. But the moment they reach the school grounds in western Massachusetts, Penelope—and no one else—ricochets from one supernatural adventure to another, ruining all her plans. To her and her family’s horror, she ends up being assigned to the cheerfully chaotic Aphrodite Hall. More disasters follow. Penelope’s muse is rude and useless, her 12 assigned labors make no sense, Paris (who’s in Athena Hall) grows distant and unsupportive, their parents are disappointed, and her terrifying adventures keep derailing her education. She’s ready to give up and leave—but her roommate, Fifi, becomes a supportive friend, and the Aphrodites prove much nicer and more fun than the Athenas. Maybe if Penelope soldiers on, the chaos might start to make sense? Anaximander’s provides a creatively imagined and well-described setting for the hapless, sympathetic, and resilient Penelope’s adventures. Her evolution from an uber-controlled “Athena girl” into someone more flexible who learns what true friends are is believable and gratifying. While her adventures are compulsively readable, many story elements remain frustratingly lacking in context. The secondary characters lack depth; Fifi reads Black, and her characterization evokes the Black best friend trope. Penelope’s family is cued white.
Exciting, if largely unexplained, adventures fill this Greek mythology–inspired boarding school fantasy. (Fantasy. 10-13)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781665985468
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 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.
