A pleasant twist on a sturdy franchise.
The wimpy kid’s best friend tells his side of the story.
After 13 volumes documenting events from Greg Heffley’s perspective, Rowley Jefferson takes a turn. The result is oddly refreshing: Greg’s unreliable narration gives readers plenty to chuckle at, but Rowley’s brutal honesty supplies fans of the series an unblinking look at their favorite protagonist. Greg’s jerk-y behavior that always lurked beneath the surface emerges fully here, coming dangerously close to ruining the character. Kinney uses this perspective shift to explore Greg’s behavior from the outside but through the eyes of his best friend, and that distinction is important. Rowley has cleareyed faith in his friend despite his father’s disapproval and nudges to make a better one. This faith is tested during a difficult sleepover and an exasperating study session but rewarded in the end. The Wimpy Kid books have never been heavy on plot, instead emphasizing character and gags. The gags in this volume are serviceable, but the character work is terrific. The fact that Kinney can expose new facets of his characters this deep into the series is a credit to the property. Underneath the marketing, the movies, the bookmarks, and the merchandise, the Wimpy Kid books are about a couple of pals figuring themselves out.
A pleasant twist on a sturdy franchise. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 7-10)Pub Date: April 9, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4027-5
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
A simple lesson jazzed up by obstacles.
The Seasonal Sparkles return in an adventure about friendship, fairness and jealousy.
Winter, the Sparkle responsible for causing winter in the human world, lives in her icy Sparkledom with her pet and best friend, Flurry the polar bear. While Winter and Flurry build a giant snow fort one day to impress her sisters, they discover a baby fox. Winter fawns over the cute fox, neglecting Flurry and sparking his jealousy. Hurt, he takes off—tunneling straight into the Barrens, the land inhabited by the villainous Bluster Tempest and his counterparts to the Sparkles, the Weeds boys. Accompanied by her sisters and the baby fox, Winter goes on a quest to get her best friend back. Along the way they face nasty surprises—booby traps left by the Weeds range from dangerous (giant mouse traps and Indiana Jones–style spikes triggered by sensors in the floor) to hilariously unpleasant (a smell so bad that Winter says “It’s like someone pooped in my nose!”). When they find Flurry, he’s less in need of rescue than they anticipated—the Weeds have adopted him and renamed him Butch. Worse, he might not even want to come home. Winter has to leave the decision up to him—the less-than-considerate nature of the Weeds along with Winter’s unconditional apology win the day.
A simple lesson jazzed up by obstacles. (Fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61963-297-4
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2014
Appealing any time of the year.
Brooklyn fourth-grader Hank Wolowitz faces his worst Halloween ever when his invisible friend, Inkling, discovers that pumpkins are his favorite kind of food.
It's hard enough to keep the bandapat in the laundry basket a secret from his parents, his sister, Nadia, his downstairs neighbor Chin and his classmates. Just keeping him fed takes all the pay from his job at the family ice-cream parlor, and he's had to invent a top-secret project to explain all the squash he's been buying. When Inkling goes bananas and chews up Nadia's artwork—four intricately carved pumpkins—Hank takes the blame for the violence. Worse, although his father had promised to use one of his ideas for their special Halloween ice-cream flavor this year, they are advertising his sister's stupid candy crunch. Finally, he has no one to go trick-or-treating with. Hank’s first-person narration is appropriately self-pitying. But while his unseen pet can cause trouble, the bandapat also helps. Gentle humor and a realistic urban setting add interest to this solid middle-grade read. Unlike Hank, readers can actually see the bandapat in Bliss’ gray-scale cartoons. (Final art not seen.) Events of the first book (Invisible Inkling, 2011) are summarized early on, and Jenkins introduces her characters and the situation so smoothly that readers can easily start here.
Appealing any time of the year. (Fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: July 24, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-180223-2
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2012
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