This smart, hilarious mashup of off-the-grid minimalism and smart-home consumerism adds up to a quirky treat.
Dagmar’s dad, Trent, couldn’t sell—or pay for—the tiny house he built in Oakland; now relocated next to a redwood forest, it’s the tiny family home.
The cramped household also includes Dagmar’s artist stepmom, Leya, and younger half brother, Santi. Trent’s a skilled repurposer, but despite support from Dagmar’s corporate-executive mom, family finances are precarious. Dagmar, 12, who misses her friends, loathes Leya’s vegetarian cuisine, and resents being tailed by Santi, works surreptitiously to engineer the family’s return to Oakland and combats boredom exploring the forest. Ignoring the “no trespassing” sign, she encounters surveillance cameras, barking mastiffs, and traps set by the landowners—a tech billionaire and his warring adult siblings—and meets the billionaire’s competitive son, Blake, also 12. Blake shows off his family’s gizmo-heavy domicile and invites Dagmar (equally competitive) and Santi along on a mall trip escorted by Vladimir, his bodyguard, where they enjoy real (i.e., junk) food and an exciting mall chase that includes escalator surfing. While the kids’ friendship grows, Blake’s dad, uncle, and aunt remain at odds. With the long, hot summer nearing fire season, Graff’s signature, over-the-top plotting builds to a thrilling climax. The whimsically drawn characters are good company, especially resourceful Dagmar, a droll tour guide whose tart commentary is a highlight.
This smart, hilarious mashup of off-the-grid minimalism and smart-home consumerism adds up to a quirky treat. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-984813-85-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Unforgettably quirky, fast-paced fun.
In a race against their enemies, the Porch girls must find a peculiar pearl in order to foil a fiendish plot.
After defeating a monstrous Kyrgalops in The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science (2024), Gertrude, Eugenia, and Dee-Dee Porch find themselves (after a series of madcap events) at Lake Kagloopy’s Purple Pearl Hotel with their mentor, Millicent Quibb. Quibb informs the trio that they must find the titular pearl before the members of their evil mad-scientist rivals, the KRA, do. If they fail, the KRA (whose members include the malevolent mayor, Majestina DeWeen, and her slimy sycophantic lawyer, Ashley Cookie) plans to use the gem to bestow the Gift of Endless Vibrancy on the villainous Talon Sharktūth. Hilarity ensues as the Porches attend the annual Shrimp Ball, encounter Umbrella Turkeys, search for Cloudite (floating cloud rocks), and don invisible but smelly woolen coats. Jokes aside, the girls’ story is intriguing, offering more clues to their mysterious backgrounds and tantalizing tidbits promising later adventures. McKinnon offers bountiful backstory (alongside a running joke to encourage readers to pick up the preceding volume) and enough guffaw-inducing jokes, zany footnotes, and creative jargon to enthrall readers both new and old with her delightful sophomore effort. Mixing humor, found family, and well-wrought worldbuilding, this sequel is a certain crowd pleaser. Final art not seen; in the previous book, the grayscale illustrations showed the girls with varying skin tones.
Unforgettably quirky, fast-paced fun. (appendices) (Adventure. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9780316555296
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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