An engagingly imaginative, rich, and humorous insect tale.
In this dual-language children’s book, a boy’s beloved beetles come to the rescue.
In this tale, set some time ago, the island of Yagüate features sugar cane fields on which rhino beetles feed, though they leave plenty to harvest. Seven-year-old Poolishwawee, with light brown skin, adores the insects, even though they smell bad from their habit of rolling poop (available in vast quantities from manure fertilizer) into balls. His dream is to become “an astronaut entomologist specializing in space beetles.” Ominous signs, like a giant rhino beetle crossing the moon, warn of danger. Poolishwawee and two friends go walking in the sugar cane and get lost as a storm brews. Raul Valcarcel, who’s burning the fields after insecticide doesn’t work, threatens to arrest the kids for trespassing, but they’re defended by pet cat Lily Bones. A hailstorm of beetle-shaped ice descends on the smoky fields, and Tunkun—the giant rhino beetle of legend who, with the huge scorpion Noprok, created the continents—awakens. The sugar cane fields catch on fire, and all of Yagüate unites to put out the blaze. Only Tunkun and his army of beetle firefighters can save the crops and the island. In his latest children’s book, offered in both English and Spanish, Perez manages to combine wonderfully goofy humor with a real sense of mythmaking, along with a subtle environmental message. Poolishwawee’s besottedness is funny, but he’s also genuinely disturbed by the field-burning plans: “ ‘Beetles not dying fast enough,’ Poolishwawee repeated, not believing the words.” The author is a striking phrase maker; for a girl’s French mother, “a ruby smidgen of her heart” remains in Paris, and manure’s smell is “the rumpus of cow poop.” The Spanish version is an uncredited solid translation, almost word for word. The uncredited digital illustrations have an attractively stylized, cartoonish look, with dramatic compositions that underline the action.
An engagingly imaginative, rich, and humorous insect tale.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-9899104-8-4
Page Count: 100
Publisher: Astro Rhino Beetle
Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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