Strange behavior from all the grown-ups and the over-hasty departure of an interstellar expedition raise a lad’s suspicions in this adventure-comedy set in 2174. Still wondering if there’s truth to the rumors that his scientist parents are to blame for the disappearance of a previous expedition, Mike finds troubling clues that they’re out to sabotage the newest one too after they hustle him aboard a ship that takes off almost immediately for the nearest wormhole. On the way, not only does Larc, an oddly knowing classmate with long, white hair, attach herself to him, but he’s horrified to find his dragonesque old teacher Mrs. Halebopp aboard as well. As it turns out, they and his parents are allied in a secret effort to rescue the lost explorers while exposing a corporation’s ruthless scheme to reap quick profits by terraforming newly discovered planets at the expense of local ecologies. Readers will enjoy watching Mike work his way through both muddled feelings and adult secrets with savvy sleuthing, sharp observation and courage in the clutch. (Science fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: June 23, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-375-84556-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A droll and clever opener likely to leave readers breathless both with laughter and anticipation.
The fourth wall suffers major breaches as young characters from a popular fantasy series and the "real real world" join forces to battle threats in both.
Born of a real mother and a fictional dad, Bethany has been searching for her father ever since he disappeared into a book on her fourth birthday. When classmate Owen sees her materializing out of a copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, she unwillingly acquires a gobsmacked ally who persuades her to pick up a finding spell from the cliffhanger scene at the end of Volume 6 in his adored Kiel Gnomenfoot series. Owen tags along to do the unthinkable: change the plot by saving the Dumbledore-ish Magister from death at the hands of mad scientist and archvillain Dr. Verity. Crises snowball as Owen finds himself caught in a climactic battle between Magic and Science in the yet-to-be-published seventh volume. Meanwhile, Bethany is left on this side of the printed page to somehow prevent the Magister, enraged by the revelation that he's fictional, from freeing all made-up people and creatures and exiling their creators into a storybook to see how they like having no free will. Riley concocts a tasty mix of familiar tropes and truly inventive twists for his Gnomenfoot scenario plus a set of broadly rendered scene stealers for a supporting cast. For a plot, he dishes up a nonstop barrage of situational pickles for his increasingly desperate protagonists.
A droll and clever opener likely to leave readers breathless both with laughter and anticipation. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4814-0919-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2014
A determined nonreader suffers toxic exposure to genre fiction when a bookcase falls on his head. Reluctantly agreeing to help set up a display in his school’s media center, Trip Dinkleman blacks out beneath a shower of volumes—and wakes up (in a new chapter titled “Horror”) outside an eerie haunted house. About to have his face cut off at the command of leering Professor Psycho, Trip suddenly finds himself in “Sports Fiction,” carrying the ball in the Super Bowl. So it goes, each new chapter starting with the previous one’s last line, through Adventure, Humor, Mystery and the rest of the roster. After a riotously over-the-top Fantasy quest (“I am Hockaloogie, …a wise and mystical sage who occasionally speaks in old English and refuses to give away plot details for his own mysterious reasons”) and a horrifying stint as a female in Fiction for Girls, Trip comes to and discovers that his negative attitude toward reading has been thoroughly spoiled. Gutman has way too much fun here, and reading-assignment-weary young readers will, too. (Fantasy and everything else. 10-12)
Pub Date: July 29, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4169-2438-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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