For readers who enjoy a fantasy-filled world of adventure.
Thirteen-year-old Silver Batal lives in the desert town of Jaspaton and wants only to go to the capital city of Calidia to race water dragons.
She is meant to follow in her family’s legacy and become a jeweler, but she secretly plans to leave Jaspaton when she learns Sagittaria Wonder, “the best and most brilliant Desert Nations water dragon racer in the whole world,” will be visiting. Only her cousin Brajon, also 13, knows her secret. She befriends elderly and mysterious Nebekker, who promises to help her make a racing suit to impress her hero. However, her plans are thwarted when Sagittaria reveals herself to be far less than heroic, stealing Kirja, Nebekker’s bonded dragon, kept in secret outside of town. Silver also meets and bonds with Kirja’s baby, whom she names Hiyyan. The bond between a human and dragon is so strong that “you would do anything the other needs. Even die for each other. And when the day of death comes for one, the other cannot live.” Silver, Hiyyan, and Brajon’s quest to rescue Kirja takes them to Calidia and readers on a rip-roaring adventure. Halbrook’s worldbuilding includes a rich taxonomy of water dragons who are fully realized, with emotions, loyalty, and aspirations. The history of water dragons and the geopolitics of the Desert Nations are smoothly woven into her adventure plot. Halbrook, who is of Lebanese heritage, injects cultural details readers familiar with the Arab world will recognize.
For readers who enjoy a fantasy-filled world of adventure. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: June 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-18107-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride.
Zipping back and forth in time atop outsized robo–bell bottoms, mad inventor Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) legs his way to center stage in this slightly less-labored continuation of episode 9.
The action commences after a rambling recap and a warning not to laugh or smile on pain of being forced to read Sarah Plain and Tall. Pilkey first sends his peevish protagonist back a short while to save the Earth (destroyed in the previous episode), then on to various prehistoric eras in pursuit of George, Harold and the Captain. It’s all pretty much an excuse for many butt jokes, dashes of off-color humor (“Tippy pressed the button on his Freezy-Beam 4000, causing it to rise from the depths of his Robo-Pants”), a lengthy wordless comic and two tussles in “Flip-o-rama.” Still, the chase kicks off an ice age, the extinction of the dinosaurs and the Big Bang (here the Big “Ka-Bloosh!”). It ends with a harrowing glimpse of what George and Harold would become if they decided to go straight. The author also chucks in a poopy-doo-doo song with musical notation (credited to Albert P. Einstein) and plenty of ink-and-wash cartoon illustrations to crank up the ongoing frenzy.
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-17536-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
Thrills galore for gamers willing to go along for the ride.
A new virtual-reality theme park goes haywire on a crowd of young victims, er, visitors in Alexander’s latest screamfest.
Having scored one of just 100 coveted preview tickets to a cutting-edge, kids-only venue dubbed ESCAPE, budding amusement park fan and designer Cody Baxter is looking forward to a life-changing experience. What he gets is more of a life-threatening one, as games and rides with names like Triassic Terror and Haunted Hillside not only pit him against a monster and then zombies—or sometimes a monster and zombies—as well as ruthless competing players, but seem tailored to play on individual personal terrors. And, in some never explained way, the VR quickly turns into real battles that inflict real wounds even as the real settings shift with sudden, dizzying unpredictability. Teaming up with loyal new friends Jayson Torn and Inga Andersdottir, the former described as being Japanese and White and the latter as Norwegian, Cody (who seems to default to White) struggles for survival, learning ultimately that ESCAPE was created by an evil genius with an ulterior motive who is convinced that he can teach children a salutary lesson. The plot’s no more logical in its twists and contrivances than the premise, but the author’s knack for spinning out nightmarish situations is definitely on display here as the tale careens toward a properly lurid outcome.
Thrills galore for gamers willing to go along for the ride. (Light horror. 9-12)Pub Date: June 7, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-26047-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2022
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