An often appealing and informative whodunit for young readers.
In Kilby’s illustrated children’s book, Hake Pollock, the Fish Stick Detective, solves a mystery by collecting unique facts about birds.
One summer’s day, Dame Jane Great-Dane seeks Hake’s immediate counsel, as the 100-carat Neil Diamond has gone missing. When her closest friends and jewelry connoisseurs—auctioneer Sir Humboldt Penn-Gwynn, a penguin; mine owner Sir Struthio Camelus, an ostrich; and gem and jewelry dealer Lady Javan Magpie, a magpie—visited for dinner, she went to obtain salad tongs from the waitstaff; the salad was spilled, and the diamond disappeared. Hake consults with the quirky, intelligent Dr. Bill Oddly, the ornithology chair of the local university, to get more insight into the three bird suspects. In this unique whodunit, Kilby presents intriguing facts, such as that Humboldt penguins live on rocky beaches, that Javan green magpies are part of the crow family and “have a reputation for stealing shiny things for their home,” and that ostriches can run 40 miles per hour. Penrod’s cartoon illustrations enrich the story with an offbeat comics-style layout with full-color characters and a grayscale background that’s consistent with the noir-detective theme. The artwork highlights relevant details of each of the key characters along the way and gets across a sense of movement in the static frames. However, although story’s concept is engaging, the ending is unsatisfying; the reader knows what happened, but it lacks a denouement to resolve things more neatly. A spread of Hake processing the events of the story might also have been useful for its young audience. Additionally, the text spells out details that are already clearly present in the images, which feels unnecessarily redundant. Nonetheless, this is an engaging picture-book blend of mystery and fable with fun wordplay and a sense of humor.
An often appealing and informative whodunit for young readers.Pub Date: March 3, 2023
ISBN: 9781649799913
Page Count: 20
Publisher: Austin Macauley
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.
In Florence’s middle-grade fantasy novel, a young girl’s heart is tested in the face of an evil, spreading Darkness.
Eleven-year-old Lydia, “freckle-cheeked and round-eyed, with hair the color of pine bark and fair skin,” is struggling with the knowledge that she has reached the age to apprentice as an herbalist. Lydia is reluctant to leave her beloved, magical Mulberry Glen and her cozy Housetree in the woods—she’ll miss Garder, the Glen’s respected philosopher; her fairy guardian Pit; her human friend Livy; and even the mischievous part-elf, part-imp, part-human twins Zale and Zamilla. But the twins go missing after hearing of a soul-sapping Darkness that has swallowed a forest and is creeping into minds and engulfing entire towns. They have secretly left to find a rare fruit that, it is said, will stop the Darkness if thrown into the heart of the mountain that rises out of the lethal forest. Lydia follows, determined to find the twins before they, too, fall victim to the Darkness. During her journey, accompanied by new friends, she gradually realizes that she herself has a dangerous role to play in the quest to stop the Darkness. In this well-crafted fantasy, Florence skillfully equates the physical manifestation of Darkness with the feelings of insecurity and powerlessness that Lydia first struggles with when thinking of leaving the Glen. Such negative thoughts grow more intrusive the closer she and her friends come to the Darkness—and to Lydia’s ultimate, powerfully rendered test of character, which leads to a satisfyingly realistic, not quite happily-ever-after ending. Highlights include a delightfully haunting, reality-shifting library and a deft sprinkling of Latin throughout the text; Pit’s pet name for Lydia is mea flosculus (“my little flower”). Fine-lined ink drawings introducing each chapter add a pleasing visual element to this well-grounded fairy tale.
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781956393095
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Waxwing Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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