Uncomplicated gateway fare for readers still working up to Percy Jackson or Jane Yolen’s Young Heroes series.
White teenage cousins discover that they have four days to reconstitute a magic shield that will save Earth from fiery destruction. First stop: ancient Greece.
The pseudonymous co-authors assemble tried-and-true, which is to say stock, elements into a plot-driven opener. When Trey and his gung-ho British cousin Samantha match up the halves of a disk dubbed the Heart of Light, they find themselves transported to a cave where they are immediately attacked by a harpy before just as suddenly snapping back to Trey’s basement. A wizardly figure appears to inform them that they are “Chosen Ones” tasked with finding the four long-hidden fragments of the Warrior’s Shield before an imminent “attack of the Dark.” They return to battle more harpies—or “winged filth” as the local satyrs repeatedly dub them—before tackling the “serpent woman” Medusa herself. Sam needs rescuing more than once by the boys, but her comically wild aggression (“I wanna kick some asp!”) both leaves the harpies in broken, bloody heaps and makes her a good match for cautious Trey, who recalls garbled bits of the legend of Perseus in time to snatch the Shield’s first piece and work an escape. De la Rue contributes occasional ink drawings that depict the skinny young heroes in battle with ragged mythological horrors; the author appends a follow-up miniquiz for “Greek Geeks.”
Uncomplicated gateway fare for readers still working up to Percy Jackson or Jane Yolen’s Young Heroes series. (Fantasy. 8-10)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-349-12436-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Little, Brown UK
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
Dizzyingly silly.
The famous superhero returns to fight another villain with all the trademark wit and humor the series is known for.
Despite the title, Captain Underpants is bizarrely absent from most of this adventure. His school-age companions, George and Harold, maintain most of the spotlight. The creative chums fool around with time travel and several wacky inventions before coming upon the evil Turbo Toilet 2000, making its return for vengeance after sitting out a few of the previous books. When the good Captain shows up to save the day, he brings with him dynamic action and wordplay that meet the series’ standards. The Captain Underpants saga maintains its charm even into this, the 11th volume. The epic is filled to the brim with sight gags, toilet humor, flip-o-ramas and anarchic glee. Holding all this nonsense together is the author’s good-natured sense of harmless fun. The humor is never gross or over-the-top, just loud and innocuous. Adults may roll their eyes here and there, but youngsters will eat this up just as quickly as they devoured every other Underpants episode.
Dizzyingly silly. (Humor. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-50490-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A dramatic, educational, authentic whale of a tale.
After a tsunami devastates their habitat in the Salish Sea, a young orca and her brother embark on a remarkable adventure.
Vega’s matriarchal family expects her to become a hunter and wayfinder, with her younger brother, Deneb, protecting and supporting her. Invited to guide her family to their Gathering Place to hunt salmon, Vega’s underwater miscalculations endanger them all, and an embarrassed Vega questions whether she should be a wayfinder. When the baby sister she hoped would become her life companion is stillborn, a distraught Vega carries the baby away to a special resting place, shocking her grieving family. Dispatched to find his missing sister, Deneb locates Vega in the midst of a terrible tsunami. To escape the waters polluted by shattered boats, Vega leads Deneb into unfamiliar open sea. Alone and hungry, the young siblings encounter a spectacular giant whale and travel briefly with shark-hunting orcas. Trusting her instincts and gaining emotional strength from contemplating the vastness of the sky, Vega knows she must lead her brother home and help save her surviving family. In alternating first-person voices, Vega and Deneb tell their harrowing story, engaging young readers while educating them about the marine ecosystem. Realistic black-and-white illustrations enhance the maritime setting.
A dramatic, educational, authentic whale of a tale. (maps, wildlife facts, tribes of the Salish Sea watershed, environmental and geographical information, how to help orcas, author’s note, artist’s note, resources) (Animal fiction. 8-10)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-299592-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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