An exciting, exotic tale that occasionally overwhelms with its intricacy.
In this middle-grade historical-adventure novel, set in 1912 Morocco, a group of misfit children are kidnapped and sold as slaves to the vicious lord of a casbah.
Tariq is a street-wise orphan from Tangier who has spent his life just trying to survive. Just as he has finally found happiness in the care of the kind Zijuan, slave traders kidnap him and sell him as a camel jockey to the ruthless Caid Ali Tamzali. Also in his company are Margaret, the daughter of a British naval captain, who was kidnapped from her hotel; Fez, a brainiac from the mountains whose entire tribe was murdered; and Aseem, who was sold by his own father when he could no longer care for him. The four become fast friends, united in their desire to escape the evil Caid before they die in his service. Plotlines involve Margaret’s father tangling with pirates, Zijuan negotiating with Moroccan crime lords and a group of rebel fighters plotting to overthrow Caid’s casbah. The complex story, like its main characters, rarely stops to take a breath, hopping around in time to reveal the various back stories of its diverse ensemble. This provides tremendous insight into everyone’s motivations, but it can also grow dizzying. Some of the dialogue falls flat, but the action is so intense that many readers will hardly notice the words being said. Debut author O’Neill incorporates a great deal of cultural and historical context into his story; detailed descriptions of clothes, meals, weather and more will make readers feel as though they have traveled back in time and fallen into that world. The cliffhanger ending all but demands that readers jump to the next installment in the series.
An exciting, exotic tale that occasionally overwhelms with its intricacy.Pub Date: April 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-0985196943
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Black Ship Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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
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