A fun SF creature feature that will keep readers engaged.
In Ness’ illustrated middle-grade novel, a young boy is stranded at sea by dog pirates on a future Earth run by giant cats.
Since the 2100s, genetic engineering has resulted in colorfully named animal species that are larger and smarter than their traditional counterparts and have the ability to talk. Rolo, a “hooman” boy who spent most of his childhood off-world, now lives aboard a flying circus with his adoptive parents, an elephite fortuneteller named Madame Marvelli, and a catling custodian and engineer named Scram. His family also includes an adoptive sister—a hooman girl named Ailey—and his pet alien, Quiggles. Unused to Earth customs, Rolo is reluctant to attend school, but his father makes him go anyway. While on a field trip to the Meowmi Maritime Museum, Rolo is exploring a historic pirate ship when houndrel pirates suddenly take it over, and soon Rolo’s stranded out at sea with a group who’s never interacted with a hooman before. Rolo, together with a houndrel named Jojo, will have to uncover secrets of the Felion Empire if he ever wants to see his family again. Ness has clearly put a lot of thought into what a world with intelligent animals would look like, which adds to the enjoyment; for example, genetically engineered plants grow meat, so the animals don’t have to eat one another. Young readers are also sure to enjoy the nonstop animal puns and wordplay scattered throughout the book (one character is known as the “Furry Fury”), as well as Komarenko’s full-color illustrations that appear in every chapter and add detail to the text’s descriptions. Most of the characters depicted are of the four-legged variety, which is sure to thrill animal lovers of all ages.
A fun SF creature feature that will keep readers engaged.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK TO SCREEN
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