Unlikely to enjoy an audience beyond confirmed Asterix fans.
Indomitable Gauls Asterix and Obelix find themselves babysitting a sullen teenager in this 38th episode of the venerable Franco-Belgian comic.
Leading the launch of new U.S. editions of the whole series, all newly translated by Johnson, this story finds the peace of the sole unconquered village in all of Roman-occupied Gaul disturbed when former brothers in arms of chief Vitalstatistix ask him to care for young Adrenalynn, daughter of their former leader, Vercingetorix. They must voyage on to Londinium to make ready a more permanent hiding place for her—both she and the torque she wears are sought after by traitor Dirtipolitix to sell to the Romans. “Be careful,” Adrenalynn’s adoptive dads warn as they depart. “She runs away.” The chief immediately summons warriors Asterix and Obelix to keep an eye on her, but it doesn’t take long, of course, before she sneaks off, throwing our heroes into a confusing sea battle that involves Dirtipolitix, some pirates, and a ship of the Roman navy. The trim of this volume is considerably smaller than the French original, and the cramping of both figures and lettering exacerbates the overall confusion. As with most Asterix stories, much of the fun is in sounding out the outlandish names and viewing the side business rather than in the actual plot; also, alas, as in many Asterix stories, the breathtakingly offensive renditions of minor characters of color (two Black characters and an Asian character) suck a good deal of that fun back out.
Unlikely to enjoy an audience beyond confirmed Asterix fans. (Graphic historical fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: July 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5458-0569-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Papercutz
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride.
Zipping back and forth in time atop outsized robo–bell bottoms, mad inventor Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) legs his way to center stage in this slightly less-labored continuation of episode 9.
The action commences after a rambling recap and a warning not to laugh or smile on pain of being forced to read Sarah Plain and Tall. Pilkey first sends his peevish protagonist back a short while to save the Earth (destroyed in the previous episode), then on to various prehistoric eras in pursuit of George, Harold and the Captain. It’s all pretty much an excuse for many butt jokes, dashes of off-color humor (“Tippy pressed the button on his Freezy-Beam 4000, causing it to rise from the depths of his Robo-Pants”), a lengthy wordless comic and two tussles in “Flip-o-rama.” Still, the chase kicks off an ice age, the extinction of the dinosaurs and the Big Bang (here the Big “Ka-Bloosh!”). It ends with a harrowing glimpse of what George and Harold would become if they decided to go straight. The author also chucks in a poopy-doo-doo song with musical notation (credited to Albert P. Einstein) and plenty of ink-and-wash cartoon illustrations to crank up the ongoing frenzy.
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-17536-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
Though occasionally heavy-handed, this debut offers a vivid glimpse of the 1960s South through the eyes of a spirited girl...
The closing of her favorite swimming pool opens 11-year-old Gloriana Hemphill’s eyes to the ugliness of racism in a small Mississippi town in 1964.
Glory can’t believe it… the Hanging Moss Community Pool is closing right before her July Fourth birthday. Not only that, she finds out the closure’s not for the claimed repairs needed, but so Negroes can’t swim there. Tensions have been building since “Freedom Workers” from the North started shaking up status quo, and Glory finds herself embroiled in it when her new, white friend from Ohio boldly drinks from the “Colored Only” fountain. The Hemphills’ African-American maid, Emma, a mother figure to Glory and her sister Jesslyn, tells her, “Don’t be worrying about what you can’t fix, Glory honey.” But Glory does, becoming an activist herself when she writes an indignant letter to the newspaper likening “hateful prejudice” to “dog doo” that makes her preacher papa proud. When she’s not saving the world, reading Nancy Drew or eating Dreamsicles, Glory shares the heartache of being the kid sister of a preoccupied teenager, friendship gone awry and the terrible cost of blabbing people’s secrets… mostly in a humorously sassy first-person voice.
Though occasionally heavy-handed, this debut offers a vivid glimpse of the 1960s South through the eyes of a spirited girl who takes a stand. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-33180-7
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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