Complex, engaging, and sure to please a wide audience.
Two sets of twins find themselves pursued by gangs and pirates on a swashbuckling sea adventure.
In mid-19th-century Manhattan, white, carrot-topped 12-year-old twins Cleopatra and Alexander Dodge have taken up with the no-good Black Hook gang since their father’s gone missing. When they bumble one of their break-ins, they end up snitching on the gang to save their own skins. Exiled from New York, they decide to head west. On their way, they encounter another set of white, titian-tressed con-artist twins, Silas and Edwin. After a destructive melee, the two sets of twins are separated, and Silas and Cleo (now disguised as a boy and going by Pat) must track down the shanghaied Edwin and Alex. All are being pursued by the Black Hooks and a fierce pirate, who is seeking items carried by Cleo and Alex. With a keen eye to detail and deft pacing, Larson has created a sweeping and richly woven tale that never once loses its breakneck momentum and adroitly juggles a number of themes and plotlines. Mock’s clearly delineated panels and earth-toned art breathe life into the historical setting, although some readers may have a hard time distinguishing between the mismatched, similarly dressed sets of identical-looking twins, especially on their sea adventures. The vast cast of secondary characters appropriately includes people of color.
Complex, engaging, and sure to please a wide audience. (Graphic historical adventure. 8-13)Pub Date: June 28, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-374-30043-2
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2016
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel.
Sandy and his family, Japanese Canadians, experience hatred and incarceration during World War II.
Sandy Saito loves baseball, and the Vancouver Asahi ballplayers are his heroes. But when they lose in the 1941 semifinals, Sandy’s dad calls it a bad omen. Sure enough, in December 1941, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor in the U.S. The Canadian government begins to ban Japanese people from certain areas, moving them to “dormitories” and setting a curfew. Sandy wants to spend time with his father, but as a doctor, his dad is busy, often sneaking out past curfew to work. One night Papa is taken to “where he [is] needed most,” and the family is forced into an internment camp. Life at the camp isn’t easy, and even with some of the Asahi players playing ball there, it just isn’t the same. Trying to understand and find joy again, Sandy struggles with his new reality and relationship with his father. Based on the true experiences of Japanese Canadians and the Vancouver Asahi team, this graphic novel is a glimpse of how their lives were affected by WWII. The end is a bit abrupt, but it’s still an inspiring and sweet look at how baseball helped them through hardship. The illustrations are all in a sepia tone, giving it an antique look and conveying the emotions and struggles. None of the illustrations of their experiences are overly graphic, making it a good introduction to this upsetting topic for middle-grade readers.
An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel. (afterword, further resources) (Graphic historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5253-0334-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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