A heck of a two-fisted action-adventure story.
The Mouse Watch returns for more.
Bernie and Jarvis are riding high after the success of their underwater mission to rescue the Milk Saucer from the nefarious clutches of R.A.T.S. Their next assignment promises to bring the dynamic duo into an exciting new frontier: space! With the brave Cmdr. Sleekwhisker in charge, Bernie and Jarvis are confident they’ll be able to connect the Milk Saucer to a Mouse Watch satellite that could save the world from the effects of global warming. But not everything is as it seems aboard the USS Mozzarella, and things promptly take a turn for the worse. This third entry in the series stands tall upon the shoulders of its predecessors. The characters are limber, the plotting is excellent, and the blend of humor and action provide the crisp read fans of the series have come to expect. Bernie and Jarvis remain engaging protagonists, and the espionage worldbuilding is effectively rendered. The supporting cast from the second book (particularly the Rescue Rangers legacy characters) have a reduced role here, smartly pinning the focus on Bernie and Jarvis while fleshing out the world with some new supporting players. This proves promising for future Mouse Watch titles, a series that has improved with each outing. The Saturday-morning–cartoon flavor is a tricky one to pull off, but the author has managed to turn this series into a true delight.
A heck of a two-fisted action-adventure story. (Adventure. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-368-05220-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The story would have a real chance on its own merits without these really appallingly bad episodes. (Fantasy. 8-12)
Of course this will sell—as an E.B. White item and one that the publishers are pushing hard, playing it for an adult as well as a juvenile sale.
And that is where I think it really belongs, along with Robert Lawson's books, which reach children chiefly through adults. Thurber was another, but more justifiable on the score of a nice quality of whimsy, which Stuart Little—for me at least—lacks. This seems to me pseudo-fantasy, synthetic, and lacking the tenderness that makes a story such as Wind In The Willows wholly the children's own. Undertones and overtones of this story of a mouse in a human family are unjuvenile on all counts. The central story follows the make-believe as Stuart, complete with hat, cane, pin-striped trousers, and a stout heart, embarks on his small odyssey—a hairbreadth escape in a window shade (victim of a jealous cat), high seas exploits in Central Park, near tragedy in a garbage scow. Then comes the complete flop of the schoolroom episode and the romance.
The story would have a real chance on its own merits without these really appallingly bad episodes. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 17, 1945
ISBN: 978-0-06-026396-6
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1945
PERSPECTIVES
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