A time-travel quest that honors the power of preserving and sharing stories.
Bilingual cousins once again travel through time to confront injustice.
Siggy, Camila, and Jorge return for a second adventure, racing to clear their Tía Xía’s name after she’s accused of stealing a rare children’s book and handmade puppets that are historical artifacts. Using their tía’s magical boats, they journey from present-day Miami (where school bully Cooper is eager to get them in trouble) to New York City in the year 1930. Their mission: to return a signed first edition of Perez and Martina, a famous folktale by pioneering Boricua librarian Pura Belpré, to the New York Public Library along with her mouse and cockroach puppets. In the past, they meet Antonia, a child who faces racism from Mrs. Wilson, the wife of her parents’ employer, after she writes an essay celebrating Puerto Rico and critiquing the conditions in Mr. Wilson’s factory. Camila connects deeply with Antonia’s experience, having faced similar bias for bringing Spanish-language books to school. What seems like a simple task grows more complicated as the cousins navigate prejudice and the meddling Mrs. Wilson. Encounters with figures such as Arturo Schomburg, Gabriela Mistral, and Anne Carroll Moore enrich the journey. Bernatene’s dynamic grayscale illustrations draw readers into the action. This fast-paced adventure has depth and cultural relevance, blending Latine history with timely themes about whose stories are valued. Rich, extensive backmatter greatly enhances the book.
A time-travel quest that honors the power of preserving and sharing stories. (Adventure. 8-12)Pub Date: July 21, 2026
ISBN: 9781665915212
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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