While more stuffed bear than gruff bear, a fast adventure story.
Waiting for his parents after Secrets of Bearhaven (2016), Spencer deals with an imperiled member of his bear family.
Reports from Professor Weaver (bear) and Uncle Mark (white human) that Spencer’s parents will arrive safely at Bearhaven any day are all lies, which (olive-skinned) Spencer learns when he overhears them discuss the deception, which is to keep him from losing hope. Angry, Spencer plays hooky from bear school to go try to help his parents by himself—but he hardly gets out of their part of the forest before encountering Kirby, a lonely surveillance enthusiast determined to uncover the forest’s strangeness. But when his bear best friend, Kate, who has followed him from Bearhaven, attempts to protect him from Kirby, Spencer cruelly shoos Kate away so Kirby won’t spot her BEAR-COM. When Spencer returns to Bearhaven to apologize, he learns Kate never made it back—and the bears blame him. Mining Kirby for intel, Bearhaven learns Kate’s fate, and it’s very bad news bears. She’s been abducted by Moon Farm, a toy factory covering for a black-market bear operation that sells to private collectors, circuses, or, worse, for parts, making for a high-stakes mission. Once there, they discover even worse things, progressing the overarching series plot. With characterization separated from the plot, occasionally plot needs result in bearly believable reasoning.
While more stuffed bear than gruff bear, a fast adventure story. (Fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-81304-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
Dizzyingly silly.
The famous superhero returns to fight another villain with all the trademark wit and humor the series is known for.
Despite the title, Captain Underpants is bizarrely absent from most of this adventure. His school-age companions, George and Harold, maintain most of the spotlight. The creative chums fool around with time travel and several wacky inventions before coming upon the evil Turbo Toilet 2000, making its return for vengeance after sitting out a few of the previous books. When the good Captain shows up to save the day, he brings with him dynamic action and wordplay that meet the series’ standards. The Captain Underpants saga maintains its charm even into this, the 11th volume. The epic is filled to the brim with sight gags, toilet humor, flip-o-ramas and anarchic glee. Holding all this nonsense together is the author’s good-natured sense of harmless fun. The humor is never gross or over-the-top, just loud and innocuous. Adults may roll their eyes here and there, but youngsters will eat this up just as quickly as they devoured every other Underpants episode.
Dizzyingly silly. (Humor. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-50490-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A multicultural title with obvious appeal for animal-loving middle graders.
When a Bengali boy finds and saves a tiger cub from a man who wants to sell her on the black market, he realizes that the schoolwork he resents could lead to a career protecting his beloved Sunderbans island home.
When the not-yet-weaned cub escapes from a nearby reserve, Neel and many of his neighbors join the search. But some are in the pay of greedy Gupta, a shady entrepreneur who’s recently settled in their community. Even Neel’s father is tempted by Gupta’s money, although he knows that Gupta doesn’t plan to take the cub back to the refuge. Neel and his sister use the boy’s extensive knowledge of the island’s swampy interior to find the cub’s hiding place and lure it out so it can be returned to its mother. The Kolkota-born author visited the remote Sunderbans in the course of her research. She lovingly depicts this beautiful tropical forest in the context of Neel’s efforts to find the cub and his reluctance to leave his familiar world. While the conflicts resolve a bit too easily, the sense of place is strong and the tiger cub’s rescue very satisfying. Pastel illustrations will help readers envision the story.
A multicultural title with obvious appeal for animal-loving middle graders. (author's note, organizations, glossary) (Fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: April 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-58089-660-3
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2015
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