Imaginative, character-rich, and lively—a promising start to a new fantasy series.
A boy is sent to an alternate universe to fight pirates and save a world in Slomba’s middle-grade fantasy.
Twelve-year-old Eric, camping out in his backyard, jolts awake from the recurring nightmare he’s had ever since his father’s death, the result of a fall during a hiking trip they’d taken together. That’s when he sees a large, white owl, perched on the oak tree above him. Introducing himself in fluent English, the owl says his name is Stig and that he’s there to bring Eric to the Gatekeeper, the overseer of doors leading to other worlds. Eric and Stig, it transpires, have been chosen to save a fishing village held captive by the evil pirate Captain Sharky. If they fail, the village—and that entire world—will succumb to the “darker power” that has kept Sharky alive for hundreds of years. Eric and Stig’s arrival in the village strikes the mayor’s spirited daughter, Kate, as the fulfillment of a legendary prophecy about two “Deliverers” destined to come save them from the pirates. This stirring fantasy brims with high-stakes action and is humanized by smart dialogue (the loquacious Stig adds humor) and deepened by rich backstories and father-son conflicts, including Eric’s internal struggle with guilt over his father’s fall and a dwarf father’s rejection of his son, Hallo, who is Eric’s new friend. The author’s detailed worldbuilding encompasses serious battle scenes on water and on land fought with a variety of weapons, a lavish dwarf kingdom under the towering Iron Mountains, and a bleak landscape permeated by “the dry smell of the dead forest” and home to monstrous bat creatures. It is there that Eric, Stig, Hallo, and Kate go on a quest for a legendary jewel with the power to defeat the pirates and cleanse the darkness threatening the world. With more doors to other worlds to explore, it’s a good bet that Eric and Stig will be back.
Imaginative, character-rich, and lively—a promising start to a new fantasy series.Pub Date: April 15, 2023
ISBN: 9798391451617
Page Count: 199
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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