This engaging, anything-goes SF/fantasy should hold young attention spans, with more installments promised.
In this middle-grade SF/fantasy, a present-day boy with prophetic dreams and a mind attuned to time is the only hope for 31st-century Earth after an alien takeover.
Jonathan Davis, 11, is largely solitary at school, haunted by strange, lucid dreams and thoughts about the vast universe. Nat’s illustrated series opener then takes flight into two different timelines. Three months ago, Jonathan and his only real junior high friend, Ethan, explored an abandoned church, the long-rumored site of a spooky, paranormal phenomenon. Indeed, there the two found a “portal” that took them to a place in a wholly different space/time zone, where Jonathan confronted and battled fearsome creatures from mythology. Those episodes alternate with the present, in which Jonathan, merely trying to enjoy a night of backyard telescope viewing, gets pulled into the year 3003. Sibling “star kids from the sky,” the namesakes and equivalents of Greek gods Apollo and Artemis, appear and explain to Jonathan that future Earth has been secretly invaded and overwhelmed by the evil Taygateans, mind-controlling extraterrestrials who want to use enslaved humans to help terraform a new world for them to colonize. Jonathan is the “chosen one” to save humankind because he alone can master the intricacies of a sort of universal clock called Hora Prima. All he has to do is rearrange chronological events so that the Taygateans never arrive on Earth. Easier said than done? Well, yes and no, because readers are often told that Jonathan is destined to succeed, no matter the odds. Weird technologies and wild creatures—some associated with different world cultures, others wholly original—show up along the way in an anything-can-happen fashion that is (partially) explained by “string theory.” (Hmmm, was that addressed in a Stephen Hawking or Carl Sagan lecture?) But how the church portal dovetails with the alien stuff is a nice touch. Cool illustrations by Peres are a major asset, and young readers who don’t require practical ground rules for such way-out material should eagerly follow along. The author includes a glossary that features both “real” (scientifically grounded) and imaginary details.
This engaging, anything-goes SF/fantasy should hold young attention spans, with more installments promised. (glossary, author bio, afterword)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73544-881-7
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Nightsky Publishers
Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
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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