Colorful settings and characters further brighten this already high-spirited adventure.
A tween student with an MIA father hunts for environmental orbs and an elusive key in Arons’ middle-grade SF novel.
Eleven-year-old Jimmy Aster has some notoriety at the Aster Academy of Natural Science and Technology on planet Miro; after all, his great-grandfather founded the school. But that doesn’t excuse him from detention, even if the real troublemaker is Otto, his mischievous companion otter. (Jimmy and Otto, like all students and their respective companion animals, communicate via an AI-translator collar synched with an earbud.) Despite Jimmy’s increasing demerits, his greatest concern for his dad, a space explorer and environmental scientist on a research trip whom Jimmy hasn’t heard from in 14 months. Luckily, his class-project radio picks up a staticky message from his father, who apparently needs the “Aster Key,” which unlocks chests and vaults around the school. To boost the signal further, Jimmy seeks a purple Orragem, the rarest of Miro’s multicolored fuel sources. Getting ahold of that gemstone and the key may necessitate breaking curfew and risking even more of the headmaster’s wrath (“any sensible person trembled when she fixed them with her dark eyes”). Arons’ swiftly paced story and series kickoff drops ample, entertaining objectives and obstacles in Jimmy’s path (his team winning the annual Adventure Race will score him a purple Orragem, and a treasure hides behind a combination lock). The technology is memorable, from hoverskis to Jimmy’s surprisingly warm AI assistant Linus. Jimmy is a likable young hero with wonderful friends who are surrounded by irresistible four-legged companions, including a wolf, a snow leopard, and a white arctic fox. Otto, however, steals the spotlight—his is the only translated dialogue among the companions as he tirelessly encourages Jimmy or suggests snack breaks, and he’s keenly fashionable in a yellow backpack or purple snowsuit. The author rounds out the story with a relevant but never heavy-handed environmental message (the now-uninhabitable planet Zinda is a constant reminder for everyone to protect Miro).
Colorful settings and characters further brighten this already high-spirited adventure.Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2025
ISBN: 9798992822632
Page Count: 242
Publisher: Spero Productions
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
A successful call for creating and imagining, even if the story itself falls short.
In the dystopian, totalitarian world of 2099, 14-year-old Tessa and her family are desperate to solve the mystery of her twin brother Theo’s disappearance.
Tessa is growing up in a time when playgrounds are historical relics, surveillance cameras are everywhere, music is outlawed, and owning books is illegal. Under the absolute rule of Zokiris, the decadeslong leader of her territory, people are heavily controlled. When Theo vanishes under mysterious circumstances and his name is erased from the Territory Statistics list, Tessa’s 135-year-old neighbor, Miriam, gives the family contraband books that become central to figuring out Theo’s whereabouts. Most books have long since been seized and stored away in Building 903; Tessa is intrigued by their presence in her home, while her mother is terrified. Lowry, the acclaimed, award-winning author of The Giver (1993), shines in her creation of uncomfortably believable dystopian societies. Tessa’s painfully limited world is fully imagined, with its own history, laws, and norms. Her relationship with her brother reads as realistic and tender and is crucial to the mystery. Miriam is the most strongly developed character: wise and independent, unafraid and hopeful. While the climb to the book’s climax is captivating, the hurried resolution is disappointing. The powerful messaging around the importance of literature and imagination certainly resonates, however. The main characters present white.
A successful call for creating and imagining, even if the story itself falls short. (Dystopian. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780063515109
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
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