Capable, audacious kids propel this entertaining SF adventure.
In Williams’ middle-grade debut, siblings must battle evil all on their own while their superhero parents are away.
Avery isn’t your average middle schooler: Her chores include doing maintenance on gadgets for her dad, Captain Comet, and mom, Nebula Nova—superheroes who are off on a mission as the story begins. When a villain suddenly attacks the city of Neo-Veridian, Avery, along with her brother and sister (Jax and Lina), steps up to fight. The diabolical Malakor is an interdimensional “devourer of worlds,” and the kids will need to use everything at their disposal to stop him, including a handful of glitchy devices stored in their home. They put their skills to use, such as Avery’s leadership abilities, Jax’s mechanical deftness, and Lina’s “energy abilities,” which the family doesn’t quite understand yet. Malakor, meanwhile, systematically targets the city’s power source, feeding on the citizens’ fear as he blankets them in perpetual darkness. While not every plan the siblings dream up succeeds, they refuse to give up until they can rid Neo-Veridian of this formidable menace. Williams’ three charming heroes will surely win over readers. They argue a lot, but never viciously, and they often encourage one another, paying a bit more attention to Lina, the youngest. The story showcases myriad devices (with such snazzy names as “Sonic Disruptor”) that often fail in amusing ways; one unexpectedly erupts into glitter, which gets everywhere. Narrative details are deliberately kept simple; Malakor is more an ominous presence than a tangible threat, turning the sky a “sickly green” and popping up as a creepy voice in the kids’ heads (“You burn so brightly…you will fade just as fast”). Some scenes can be repetitive, typically consisting of the kids talking about devices, many of which are mentioned but not shown in action. Still, this engaging series opener will leave readers eager to see Avery, Jax, and Lina prove themselves.
Capable, audacious kids propel this entertaining SF adventure.Pub Date: March 1, 2026
ISBN: 9798994667668
Page Count: 271
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: April 2, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK TO SCREEN
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