Any yarn with the phrase “pinwheeling flatulence juggernaut” is a must-read, and not just for fans of Fowl play.
Artemis Fowl’s preteen sibs have it out with archnemesis Lord Teddy Bleedham-Drye one last time.
Or so it would seem, though, considering Lord Teddy’s fondness for clones and the various nonpermanent fatalities in earlier episodes, nothing should be taken for granted. In a plot aptly framed as “a big bang, followed by a series of smaller bangs, then another big bang”—many of which turn out to be epic gaseous blasts or, to use the delighted Beckett’s term, “fartsplosions”—the evil genius’s latest (as the omniscient narrator puts it) “elaborate and unnecessarily complicated” revenge scheme pits young “aspiring mastermind” Myles and his action-loving brother, aided by diminutive but capable blue-skinned pixel (pixie-elf) Lazuli Heitz and the ghosts of a large number of indignant Bleedham-Dryes whom Lord Teddy has murdered over the years, against first a goblin hit squad then, climactically, an army of fireball-shooting goblins. Generous measures of banter and villainous gloating grease the wheels as well as ridiculous contrivances that pull the twins from any number of obviously hopeless pickles on the way to their hard-won triumph. In an epilogue set in Ho Chi Minh City, Colfer closes another series arc by dropping in a tantalizing revelation about Lazuli’s hidden parentage. Magical cast members come in a variety of colors; human ones read as White.
Any yarn with the phrase “pinwheeling flatulence juggernaut” is a must-read, and not just for fans of Fowl play. (Fantasy. 10-13)Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-368-07567-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish.
The dreary prospect of spending a lifetime making caskets instead of wonderful inventions prompts a young orphan to snatch up his little sister and flee. Where? To the circus, of course.
Fortunately or otherwise, John and 6-year-old Page join up with Boz—sometime human cannonball for the seedy Wandering Wayfarers and a “vertically challenged” trickster with a fantastic gift for sowing chaos. Alas, the budding engineer barely has time to settle in to begin work on an experimental circus wagon powered by chicken poop and dubbed (with questionable forethought) the Autopsy. The hot pursuit of malign and indomitable Great-Aunt Beauregard, the Coggins’ only living relative, forces all three to leave the troupe for further flights and misadventures. Teele spins her adventure around a sturdy protagonist whose love for his little sister is matched only by his fierce desire for something better in life for them both and tucks in an outstanding supporting cast featuring several notably strong-minded, independent women (Page, whose glare “would kill spiders dead,” not least among them). Better yet, in Boz she has created a scene-stealing force of nature, a free spirit who’s never happier than when he’s stirring up mischief. A climactic clutch culminating in a magnificently destructive display of fireworks leaves the Coggin sibs well-positioned for bright futures. (Illustrations not seen.)
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish. (Adventure. 11-13)Pub Date: April 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234510-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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