by Greg Taylor ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2011
The same recipe as before produces predictably similar results. (Horror. 10-14)
Touring the Killer Pizza Headquarters in New York, 14-year-olds Toby, Annabel and Strobe are sucked into a high-stakes case involving a teen runaway and a deadly Halloween sacrifice.
When Calanthe, a shape shifter, asks the teen monster hunters for shelter, Hidden Hills, Ohio, seems to be the perfect place for her, especially after she selects Toby as her guide into the world of normal teen behavior. When she gains the ability to shift into a giant snake, though, the mysterious Tall Man and his invisible rukh creature show up to hunt in Hidden Hills, but for the Killer Pizza team, surrender is not on the menu. In this sequel to Killer Pizza (2009), Taylor partially succeeds in ramping up the creepy factor, though the characters and plot still feel half baked. The Tall Man’s mystic tracking snakes become embedded in Strobe’s flesh in an undeniably icky turn of events, but the rukh’s abundance of teeth and tendency toward invisibility are more comical than threatening. Characterization is stiff again, with Toby, Annabel and Strobe behaving as though the author has programmed them and set them on a rigid path.
The same recipe as before produces predictably similar results. (Horror. 10-14)Pub Date: June 21, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-312-58088-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2011
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by Alan Gratz ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 25, 2017
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense.
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In the midst of political turmoil, how do you escape the only country that you’ve ever known and navigate a new life? Parallel stories of three different middle school–aged refugees—Josef from Nazi Germany in 1938, Isabel from 1994 Cuba, and Mahmoud from 2015 Aleppo—eventually intertwine for maximum impact.
Three countries, three time periods, three brave protagonists. Yet these three refugee odysseys have so much in common. Each traverses a landscape ruled by a dictator and must balance freedom, family, and responsibility. Each initially leaves by boat, struggles between visibility and invisibility, copes with repeated obstacles and heart-wrenching loss, and gains resilience in the process. Each third-person narrative offers an accessible look at migration under duress, in which the behavior of familiar adults changes unpredictably, strangers exploit the vulnerabilities of transients, and circumstances seem driven by random luck. Mahmoud eventually concludes that visibility is best: “See us….Hear us. Help us.” With this book, Gratz accomplishes a feat that is nothing short of brilliant, offering a skillfully wrought narrative laced with global and intergenerational reverberations that signal hope for the future. Excellent for older middle grade and above in classrooms, book groups, and/or communities looking to increase empathy for new and existing arrivals from afar.
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense. (maps, author’s note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: July 25, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-88083-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
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by Dav Pilkey ; illustrated by Dav Pilkey ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 15, 2013
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
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by Dav Pilkey ; illustrated by Dav Pilkey
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