by Jim Genzano ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 9, 2020
A colorful, tenderly told story for youngsters with vivid imaginations.
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An imaginative boy discovers a door to a fantastical realm in this middle-grade adventure.
Eleven-year-old Hunter Wilson is obsessed with finding monsters. He looks for them under his bed and anywhere else he can conceive of them hiding. One day, he attends a field trip to a nearby pond with his classmates, including his best friend Gert Clemmons. They’re planning to collect jars of pond water to later examine under microscopes. A forest is close by, however, and Hunter can’t resist exploring it. He stumbles upon a large tree with a cavity filled with glowing mushrooms, which he enters; he then encounters tiny people who seem frightened of him and pelt him with acorns. When he emerges from the tree at last, he finds himself in a completely different forest. Among the strange trees there, he finds a talking raven who tells him the tale of the King of Monsters. Hunter then meets a gigantic dog whom he names Murphy; together, they find a machine that resembles a “black, gleaming moon” above the forest canopy that’s destroying trees. Elsewhere, the Puzzle Piece Man is well aware of Hunter’s progress and certain the boy will go even further. Genzano’s fantasy is a surreal, unpredictable narrative in the tradition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland that precocious readers will enjoy. This volume lays potential groundwork for future installments with details such as Hunter’s favorite book, The Yellow Castle, Volume One: Shadow Tower, as well as snippets of characters in other realms noticing Hunter leave his own woods. The prose evokes a sense of discovery and magic, as in a description of a tree covered in “soft, furry, chestnut-colored growths” that “wagged sometimes in rippling sequence.” The story unfolds in sometimes-lengthy paragraphs that may challenge some middle-grade audiences.
A colorful, tenderly told story for youngsters with vivid imaginations.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2020
ISBN: 979-8-56-121399-1
Page Count: 89
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Dav Pilkey ; illustrated by Dav Pilkey ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 26, 2014
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
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by Rosanne Parry ; illustrated by Mónica Armiño ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 7, 2019
A sympathetic, compelling introduction to wolves from the perspective of one wolf and his memorable journey.
Separated from his pack, Swift, a young wolf, embarks on a perilous search for a new home.
Swift’s mother impresses on him early that his “pack belongs to the mountains and the mountains belong to the pack.” His father teaches him to hunt elk, avoid skunks and porcupines, revere the life that gives them life, and “carry on” when their pack is devastated in an attack by enemy wolves. Alone and grieving, Swift reluctantly leaves his mountain home. Crossing into unfamiliar territory, he’s injured and nearly dies, but the need to run, hunt, and live drives him on. Following a routine of “walk-trot-eat-rest,” Swift traverses prairies, canyons, and deserts, encountering men with rifles, hunger, thirst, highways, wild horses, a cougar, and a forest fire. Never imagining the “world could be so big or that I could be so alone in it,” Swift renames himself Wander as he reaches new mountains and finds a new home. Rife with details of the myriad scents, sounds, tastes, touches, and sights in Swift/Wander’s primal existence, the immediacy of his intimate, first-person, present-tense narration proves deeply moving, especially his longing for companionship. Realistic black-and-white illustrations trace key events in this unique survival story, and extensive backmatter fills in further factual information about wolves and their habitat.
A sympathetic, compelling introduction to wolves from the perspective of one wolf and his memorable journey. (additional resources, map) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-289593-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
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