An enjoyable SF fantasy with a likable young protagonist, memorable characters, heart, and humor.
A boy finds danger, adventure, and friendship on an Earth ruled by felines in Ness’ middle-grade SF novel, one in a series.
In this entertaining sequel to the SF adventure Rolo the Pet Earthling (2023), 13-year-old Rolo escapes the planet Blorx (where “hoomans” are pets) and lands on Earth, accompanied by his brainy, one-eyed, multi-limbed companion Quiggles. Expecting to meet free “hoomans,” Rolo learns that felines now dominate the Earth. After being hauled to the vet for a rough tongue bath and vaccinations, he is taken before a judge who rules that, because he’s beyond his “cute years” and too old to be adopted, he is to be locked up in the “Litterpool Pound for Stray Hoomans.” Rolo escapes, stows away on a sky-ship belonging to the elephantlike Madame Marvelli and her Fantastical Flying Circus, and is discovered by prickly 11-year-old human Ailey, who performs with the troupe. Ailey agrees to help him find the legendary home of Earthlings who went underground generations before. The book is a wild ride filled with humor and action, but Ness adds emotional depth with Rolo’s inherent optimism, the pain behind Ailey’s prickliness, and the reasons for Madam Marvelli’s kindness and understanding (and bounty hunter Wicks’ cruelty). Feline behavioral quirks are delightfully on display: Wicks (whose apelike minions’ repartee is a hoot) is distracted by a laser pointer; a cat watches “funny hooman” videos; a tabby baker blissfully kneads dough; Rolo’s judge deliberately knocks a cup of pens off the bench; and a human catnip smuggler is sentenced to scoop litter boxes. There’s a bit of shivery horror in the mix, too, as the author (in the voice of an unnamed feline narrator) explains that humans’ rampant genetic tinkering in the 2100s led the now-sentient cats to rebel during the “Night of the Billion Claws,” reducing humanity by two thirds and ushering in the “great Felion Empire.” The epilogue includes an intriguing teaser for the next book in the series, involving Rolo’s encounter with a pirate crew of outcast canine “houndrels.” Komarenko’s vivid, imaginatively conceived digital illustrations complement the action.
An enjoyable SF fantasy with a likable young protagonist, memorable characters, heart, and humor.Pub Date: Feb. 8, 2025
ISBN: 9798988037156
Page Count: 246
Publisher: Zira Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 3, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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