A wholehearted, if overlong, middle-grade fantasy with plenty of characterization.
In England’s debut middle-grade novel, a tween boy goes on a quest through a magical realm in search of his missing parents.
Twelve-year-old Decker Brown contends with troll-like bullies at school and spends his holidays with fellow sixth graders Jude Spanno, Robert Sandbord, and Rita Foarthing, playing Monsters and Mages, a role-playing game that affords them a dynamic that recalls the main characters of the Netflix series Stranger Things. This similarity is strengthened when Decker and Jude explore a boarded-up cave system and not only release a gremlin, but also witness when the two local bullies are temporarily transformed into actual trolls. Further investigation reveals a portal within the cave—a conduit to another realm. Then Decker’s parents, who’ve been arguing, transform into savage beasts and run off into the night. While trying to find them and restore them to their human selves, Decker travels via portal to the veil, a magical realm hidden within the everyday world. There he meets Jeep, a fiercely independent girl who’s about his age. Jude, Robert, and Rita follow Decker to the veil and join the quest to find Decker’s mom and dad, which takes them through goblin-filled lands. England portrays Decker as a likable preteen boy who’s loyal, compassionate, and full of self-doubt. His friends, however, are rather more interesting characters, as are Jeep and other residents of the veil. Given its target audience, the novel feels quite long at more than 450 pages, but it affords space for engaging character development, as in a love triangle involving Rita, Decker, and Jeep. The pacing slows as the plot moves from scene-setting to full-on quest narrative, however, and the story tends to meander. The prose is exuberant but loose, offering occasionally curious word choices (such as conversational “weft”) and several textual glitches (vial instead of vile; waived for waved). Still, once young readers become invested in the story, they’ll likely enjoy many happy hours following Decker’s journey.
A wholehearted, if overlong, middle-grade fantasy with plenty of characterization.Pub Date: Aug. 11, 2023
ISBN: 9798857022610
Page Count: 475
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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
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