Both the concept and the well-paced suspense will appeal.
Ryder has just turned 11, the same age as the cartoon character created by her years-dead mother, and learns that she can enter the cartoon world—and possibly save it.
Ryder’s mom, a brilliant animator, based her main character, Rory, on Ryder. Rory is a swashbuckling girl adventurer in an extremely popular cartoon series, soon to be a film. Now Ryder’s dad is interested in nasty Bernice, who wants to make the film Rory into a sappy princess with a vapid magic wand instead of a scrappy slingshot. Scandalized, Ryder doesn’t know what to do until Rory herself steps out of the TV and invites Ryder into her world, Ecalpon (“No Place”). There they team up with Ryder’s nerdy Jewish friend, Eli, to change the movie back to the original concept. Ryder, Rory, and Eli enlist the aid of Connie, Bernice’s one likable daughter. Inhabiting the wireframe layer of the animation, the children learn they can drag artwork from the trash to re-create the original drawings. But can they win the race against time to save Rory and the film? Alternating narration among Ryder, Rory, and minor characters in Ecalpon, Lasky creates her own absorbing magical world, neatly folding it around a story of friendship. The cast is not notably diverse; with the possible exception of Connie, they all seem to be white.
Both the concept and the well-paced suspense will appeal. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-553-49891-2
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Wendy Lamb/Random
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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