Best suited for the most ardent dog or Christmas fans.
A young girl living on a struggling farm desperately wants a dog.
Twelve-year-old Meg Briggs lives on her family’s Christmas tree farm in North Carolina. Her family constantly worries about money and their farm’s financial solvency, leaving Meg acutely aware of this unease. One cold morning, Meg finds a beautiful brindled Plott hound, which she names Chestnut, on a remote corner of their property and decides to keep him—even if it means lying to everyone she loves. Meg schemes to make and sell ornaments for money to keep Chestnut and help the farm. Soon she is overwhelmed by her own fibs and punishing schedule. When her family’s farm is in further jeopardy, will Meg be able to both keep the dog she loves and help her family retain their ancestral home? Meg is a complex character who makes understandable missteps; while she is cognizant of her family’s troubles, she often relies on manipulation. Shotz’s canine confection has rapid pacing and short chapters fueled by high drama and emotional tension. For readers who enjoy the thrill of a “will-they-or-won’t-they” tale, this should keep pages flying as Meg and Chestnut endure an unrelenting cavalcade of challenges. Although teeming with melodrama, Shotz’s cloying prose can be stilted and overly formulaic, appealing perhaps most to those who appreciate familiar tropes or to established fans of this series. Characters are presumed White.
Best suited for the most ardent dog or Christmas fans. (dog facts) (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-358-10870-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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
Another winner from Mills, equally well suited to reading aloud and independent reading.
When Franklin School principal Mr. Boone announces a pet-show fundraiser, white third-grader Cody—whose lack of skill and interest in academics is matched by keen enthusiasm for and knowledge of animals—discovers his time to shine.
As with other books in this series, the children and adults are believable and well-rounded. Even the dialogue is natural—no small feat for a text easily accessible to intermediate readers. Character growth occurs, organically and believably. Students occasionally, humorously, show annoyance with teachers: “He made mad squinty eyes at Mrs. Molina, which fortunately she didn’t see.” Readers will be kept entertained by Cody’s various problems and the eventual solutions. His problems include needing to raise $10 to enter one of his nine pets in the show (he really wants to enter all of them), his troublesome dog Angus—“a dog who ate homework—actually, who ate everything and then threw up afterward”—struggles with homework, and grappling with his best friend’s apparently uncaring behavior toward a squirrel. Serious values and issues are explored with a light touch. The cheery pencil illustrations show the school’s racially diverse population as well as the memorable image of Mr. Boone wearing an elephant costume. A minor oddity: why does a child so immersed in animal facts call his male chicken a rooster but his female chickens chickens?
Another winner from Mills, equally well suited to reading aloud and independent reading. (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: June 14, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-374-30223-8
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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