The premise in this first adventure in the Stay Alive series feels familiar and cannot claim the originality or authenticity of Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet (1987); neither does it show the careful characterization and scene setting of the author’s own books for teens.
A small plane plummets into a remote lake in Alaska. Besides the pilot, passengers include members of a TV show: seven preteens plus one dad, the producer and a basset hound. Except for the dog, the characters are mostly stereotypes. There’s the brave, decisive Eagle Scout, the able cool girl, the selfish pessimist, the bumbling adult. A few are killed off quickly, and with so little character development, it is hard to care about the survivors’ circumstances, which are fairly sketchily described. Although each part begins with an interesting survival tip, the action lags, reading more like a camp to-do list, until the group decides to send out an exploration party. Those at camp experience an uneventful rescue, while those on the trail see some hardships including, for one, a death-defying swim down a set of rapids. An underlying theme seems to indicate that if they had only had a knife, things might have been different. In an unexpected closing scene, one finally floats up from the wreckage long after the rescue. However, they have always had a hatchet, and many youngsters will wish the characters had read the classic of the same name. (Adventure. 8-12)
Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-56348-2
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
IN THE NEWS
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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