Severely overstuffed with themes and subplots but will nonetheless stretch readers’ imaginations.
Thwarting a sinister time traveler’s ingenious scheme to steal great art gives two young strangers a common cause.
Struggling to care for his mom, who’s suffering from serious and undiagnosed health issues, as well as dealing with being lonely and bullied, 12-year-old Maximum Rose-Rodriguez finds himself on an urgent mission. First he finds a cryptic note—in his own handwriting—inside a sandwich from a neighbor. Then he meets mysterious art historian Dr. Syzygy (“but you can call me DZ”), who tells him that Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night, which is slated for exhibit at Los Angeles’ nearby Griffith Park Observatory, is in danger—and that saving the painting would also help his mother. Max’s adventures take him on a wild ride that includes multiple trips back to 1889 for meetings with van Gogh himself. Briner packs in so many underdeveloped subplots that her main storyline struggles for visibility. Fortunately, the book includes numerous scene-stealers, including Max’s new friend and ally, Maybe Wells, an exuberant, blue-haired trans girl, as well as a rescued pet octopus and a memorable villain. Even if the baddie’s scheme collapses with convenient ease, the ending will leave art lovers pleased and reassured. Brown-skinned Max’s name cues some Latine heritage, and Maybe presents white.
Severely overstuffed with themes and subplots but will nonetheless stretch readers’ imaginations. (Science fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9780823456444
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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
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