Fans of the movie hoping to re-create the experience will be disappointed, as will kids hoping for a preview—why bother?...
Lego loser makes good.
In this novelization of The Lego Movie, Everytoy Emmet has bought the line peddled by President (secretly evil Lord) Business lock, stock and brick. He happily joins all the other residents of Bricksburg in singing “Everything Is Awesome” morning, noon and night, and he loves the TV show Where Are My Pants? When he discovers a strange object called the Piece of Resistance on the construction site where he works, he reluctantly assumes the role of anointed Special One, prophesied to save the world from annihilation by the superweapon Kragle. Together with a motley group of Master Builders that includes punk rebel Wyldstyle, Batman, the wizard Vitruvius and the dippy amalgam UniKitty, he takes on President/Lord Business, his chief minion, Bad Cop, and countless Lego robots and micromanagers. The film loses a lot in its translation to print. Innately funny visual gags like Emmet’s interchangeable outfits and his Lego houseplant fall flat. The reveal of the fearsome Kragle as a tube of Krazy Glue with some letters missing is thoroughly unfunny, as it must be laboriously explained in prose, and, lacking both a visual and an explanation, the fact that the Piece of Resistance is the tube’s cap will be utterly lost on readers not familiar with the movie. As adapter Howard has elected (or been directed) to write the novelization from the point of view of the Lego characters, the metatextual moments in which the characters interact with the human space that surrounds their Lego worlds lose all their punch (and sense).
Fans of the movie hoping to re-create the experience will be disappointed, as will kids hoping for a preview—why bother? (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Dec. 30, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-62464-0
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2014
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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
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