Anyone who’s ever felt like the world’s smallest giant will find something to like in this book and will enjoy being...
Children who thought they could never identify with a giant may be surprised by this classically Dahl-esque British import.
Muncle Trogg is the world’s smallest giant, and he may also be the smartest. He’s the only giant who isn’t afraid of little human schoolgirls. Actually, he’s the only giant who’s ever met one. Everyone else is terrified of the “Smallings” and their magic killing sticks. But Muncle goes to visit a human town for himself, to see if he could decipher the letters in their books of magic. Curious, open-minded and no bigger than a Smalling, Muncle is hated by every other giant. Even his brother likes to dangle him upside-down for fun. This, of course, makes him the ideal hero for a children’s book. Even the most rosy-spectacled readers will be astounded at how many feats of glory he pulls off in 224 pages. The many surprises are the book’s greatest strength, but also its weakness. The action sometimes feels haphazard. Just how did Muncle get from the floor show at a royal banquet to the bottom of a volcano in only a few chapters? Then again, life is haphazard.
Anyone who’s ever felt like the world’s smallest giant will find something to like in this book and will enjoy being astounded on every page. (Fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: March 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-37800-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Chicken House/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2012
A helter-skelter caper from Down Under, with the occasional “broken gizmatron or ancient thingami-bot” from ages past to...
An ancient artifact, LOL, leads a 25th-century fugitive from the Skyburb 7 Home for Unclaimed Urchins and his beagle-bot, Oscar, to buried treasure.
The small black item that his museum-worker friend Jessie hands over seems uninteresting to Max at first…until he manages to charge it up and discovers that it’s a 400-year-old cellphone with a trove of selfies—one of which shows a long-lost statue of famous actor–turned-politician Nicole Squidman. Can Max use clues from the photo to find the priceless statue, then keep both it and himself out of the clutches of archnemesis Capt. Selby of the Recapture Squad, and perhaps even track down a descendant of the phone’s owner? No problem…with plenty of help from Jessie and Oscar (a surprisingly capable robo-pooch with a 3-D printer in its butt), plus a few massive contrivances from Macintosh. Atze’s occasional cartoon vignettes add an appropriate vibe to a largely white futuristic world of hover-skates, robo-rats, and floating suburbs. But some things, like friends, bullies, and the special relationship between a boy and his dog, never change. A “Sleuth Truth” appendix fills in the cellphone’s early years.
A helter-skelter caper from Down Under, with the occasional “broken gizmatron or ancient thingami-bot” from ages past to puzzle over. (Science fiction/mystery. 7-9)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5383-8465-7
Page Count: 128
Publisher: West 44 Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
Through the adventures that follow- their sortie against the wicked Sir Kato- Anders' (who is now Mio) memories of his...
From the author of the Bill Bergson stories (see Bill Bergson, Master Detective, etc.) comes this completely different and quite charming fairy story that should complement young feelings of longing and love and adventure.
It is Anders, once a mistreated orphan in Stockholm, who tells the remarkable tale of how he came to Faraway Land and what happened to him there. With help from Mrs. Lundy and the magic apple, he finds himself in the castle of the good King, his real father, and there experiences all the companionship and excitement he missed with mean Aunt Hulda and Uncle Olaf.
Through the adventures that follow- their sortie against the wicked Sir Kato- Anders' (who is now Mio) memories of his former life run in juxtaposition to the fantasy, making it the more real. (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-68137-350-8
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1956
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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