Uneven but exciting blend of anti-bullying PSA and Tolkien takeoff.
Boarding-school kid Chad thought that class bullies were bad enough, but then he falls into an alternate, magical realm, where he faces slavery (and worse) under predatory Orcs.
Though the title evokes a Piers Anthony “Xanth” whimsy, author Saur’s YA novel aspires to be serious business—perhaps excessively so, drawing upon themes of bullying, the horrors of slavery/human trafficking and violent death at the claws of cannibalistic creatures. Somehow, the genre-leaping stuff hangs together. After a heroic-fantasy opening in which a boy’s courage keeps the minion of an Orc master from getting a magic ring (yes, another one of those rings), we’re in contemporary Virginia. George Mason’s School of Boys is a rural boarding institution for castoff kids, mostly sons of dysfunctional rich families. In that environment, hazing and torment thrive under sadistic upperclassman Jason, protégé of the shady headmaster. Initially passive protagonist Chad is among a new class of 11- and 12-year-olds, deposited while his distant parents try to patch up their marriage. As his peers unite to stand up to Jason and his stooges, Chad keeps to himself. Half the book is a realistic narrative of the bullying (on an evolutionary scale below The Chocolate War) and the interconnected relationships of the young ensemble. Chad can no longer stay neutral when he gets pushed into a mysterious pool on the wooded school property. He finds himself in Eto, aka “Otherworld,” a Tolkienesque place occasionally open to Earth outsiders. He suffers brutal, degrading slavery in the thinly sketched society, where grotesque, man-eating Orcs (just like the ones in the movies, characters repeatedly say) are a coexisting race. Chad’s travails inspire a bloodthirsty Orc hunting-party invasion of George Mason’s School. This unites the boys, victimized and victimizer alike, against the fearsome foe. It’s a battle royal conveyed by Saur with considerable brio and deft action despite Orc fatalities far outnumbering the human ones (even a lucky BB-gun shot takes one monster out). That the storytelling is stronger than mere Peter Jackson fan-fiction helps canned lessons of teamwork, courage and bullying-is-bad go down better than a typical government-issued school lunch. But don’t go and make a Hobbit of it.
Uneven but exciting blend of anti-bullying PSA and Tolkien takeoff.Pub Date: June 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-1497398313
Page Count: 384
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 8, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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