An exciting adventure with true depth.
Determined to save Pogo, his elderly Labrador retriever, from being put down, 12-year-old Sam sets sail on his catboat for an island just off the coast of Maine.
A violent storm chases them across the water, landing them on an unfamiliar beach. There, the two take shelter in a shed where they meet Magnus, a retired ornithologist, and his arctic tern, Fuego. Over supper, Magnus shares his wisdom about life and death, and Sam realizes his selfishness and decides to return home. But the sea has other plans. Blinded by impenetrable fog, driven by unpredictable tides, and hunted by a terrifying shark, Sam and Pogo are quickly lost. They finally make their way to a wrecked ship, where they survive on rainwater and the charity of a one-eyed cormorant. There, Sam confronts not only Pogo’s fate, but his brother’s death in Afghanistan. Short chapters filled with nonstop action will keep the pages turning. While deep questions about love, sacrifice, and death offer no easy answers, Sam’s struggle is both authentic and heart-wrenching. Macfarlane’s sure hand creates accurate nautical details, a cast of fascinating human and animal characters, and the timeless struggle between man and nature, all attuned to middle-grade sensibilities with no hint of patronization.
An exciting adventure with true depth. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3394-0
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
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 three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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