This debut kicks off a series; here’s hoping the plots are more believable in the future.
Anyone with a difficult-to-appreciate sibling will feel sorry for fifth-grader Masha, older sister of precocious, gifted Sunny Sweet.
Everywhere she turns, Masha is confronted by her inquisitive, brilliant, irrepressible first-grade sister. Everyone but rule-following Masha seems to find Sunny adorable and cute, even when she concocts a new adhesive and glues a bunch of plastic flowers to Masha’s head. This time, Masha knows Sunny has gone too far. But even that tonsorial disaster is not enough to take their mother’s doting attention away from the little genius. Unfortunately, this promising setup falls prey to numerous problems with believability. While readers might be able to understand that the jealous older sister might indulge in hyperbole to bolster her case, it’s hard to accept the over-the-top exaggeration in the plot. When the sisters end up in the hospital via a neighbor’s ambulance ride, the plot twists strain credulity. The nurses treat both girls without parental permission; Masha ends up getting a shot of a painkiller and being put in a cast when she is mistaken for another patient; the staff loses both girls and a patient with whooping cough. Both girls have cellphones, but they do not have their mother’s work number entered in. Secondary characters, like the oddly absent father, are left undeveloped, while Sunny threatens to take over.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-59990-977-6
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
We challenge anyone to read this and keep a straight face.
Four misunderstood villains endeavor to turn over a new leaf…or a new rap sheet in Blabey's frenzied romp.
As readers open the first page of this early chapter book, Mr. Wolf is right there to greet them, bemoaning his reputation. "Just because I've got BIG POINTY TEETH and RAZOR-SHARP CLAWS and I occasionally like to dress up like an OLD LADY, that doesn't mean… / … I'm a BAD GUY." To prove this very fact, Mr. Wolf enlists three equally slandered friends into the Good Guys Club: Mr. Snake (aka the Chicken Swallower), Mr. Piranha (aka the Butt Biter), and Mr. Shark (aka Jaws). After some convincing from Mr. Wolf, the foursome sets off determined to un-smirch their names (and reluctantly curbing their appetites). Although these predators find that not everyone is ready to be at the receiving end of their helpful efforts, they use all their Bad Guy know-how to manage a few hilarious good deeds. Blabey has hit the proverbial nail on the head, kissed it full on the mouth, and handed it a stick of Acme dynamite. With illustrations that startle in their manic comedy and deadpan direct address and with a narrative that follows four endearingly sardonic characters trying to push past (sometimes successfully) their fear-causing natures, this book instantly joins the classic ranks of Captain Underpants and The Stinky Cheese Man.
We challenge anyone to read this and keep a straight face. (Fiction. 7-11)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-91240-2
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
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
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