A great balance of humor, heart, and horror.
In this follow-up to Dread Detention (2023), a group of middle schoolers find themselves pitted against more terrifying creatures.
Angelo and his friends Hallie, Naira, and Gustav hope they’ve seen the last of the Latchitts, an elderly couple formerly employed by their school. Angered because the kids had mistreated their granddaughter, Colette, the Latchitts sought revenge, using nursery rhymes to orchestrate attacks by large and horrifying creatures. The couple have since disappeared, and Angelo and company have even made amends with—and befriended—Colette. But ominous flocks of birds begin appearing; seven particularly large, bloodthirsty ones nearly kill Angelo’s favorite pig, Klaus. The much-anticipated school dance is approaching, but first, the school is hosting a sports day. With the entire student body outside, it’s the perfect situation for an attack—and that’s only the beginning. The characters are well developed and believable as they deal with big life situations in different ways; jokey Gus opens up to his friends about wearing a colostomy bag, while Angelo’s family struggles with poverty. Killick has a knack for funny dialogue that’s well placed between hair-raising situations, creating an irresistibly compelling story, and the birds in this tale are even creepier than the spiders in the last; things get downright gory. Because those unfamiliar with the first book may have a harder time keeping up, reading in order is recommended. Characters’ races and ethnicities aren’t mentioned.
A great balance of humor, heart, and horror. (Horror. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2024
ISBN: 9780593896990
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish.
The dreary prospect of spending a lifetime making caskets instead of wonderful inventions prompts a young orphan to snatch up his little sister and flee. Where? To the circus, of course.
Fortunately or otherwise, John and 6-year-old Page join up with Boz—sometime human cannonball for the seedy Wandering Wayfarers and a “vertically challenged” trickster with a fantastic gift for sowing chaos. Alas, the budding engineer barely has time to settle in to begin work on an experimental circus wagon powered by chicken poop and dubbed (with questionable forethought) the Autopsy. The hot pursuit of malign and indomitable Great-Aunt Beauregard, the Coggins’ only living relative, forces all three to leave the troupe for further flights and misadventures. Teele spins her adventure around a sturdy protagonist whose love for his little sister is matched only by his fierce desire for something better in life for them both and tucks in an outstanding supporting cast featuring several notably strong-minded, independent women (Page, whose glare “would kill spiders dead,” not least among them). Better yet, in Boz she has created a scene-stealing force of nature, a free spirit who’s never happier than when he’s stirring up mischief. A climactic clutch culminating in a magnificently destructive display of fireworks leaves the Coggin sibs well-positioned for bright futures. (Illustrations not seen.)
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish. (Adventure. 11-13)Pub Date: April 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234510-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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