A buoyant adventure combining colorful characters, a brisk pace, and cyber acumen.
The computerized future is a world of wonders—and danger.
Eighth grader Stanisław Migda resents moving from bustling Chicago to sleepy Springfield, but with his dad’s death and mom’s big promotion, what choice does he have? Stan’s first glimpses of Springfield Academy are promising, but nothing can prepare him for the state-of-the-art sophistication of his new school. Mirrored walls, tech-savvy classmates, and textbooks on a portable device called a Lyre that also interacts with users’ brain waves make his head spin. An aggressive duo named Anastasia and Michel take Stan under their wing, but it soon becomes apparent that they might be miscreants. A second group of kids, led by Zoro-me, Scarlett, and Julien, rescues Stan from an attack by Michel and takes him to the Arashikage Dojo for an illuminating experience led by two elderly Japanese men. Later, Stan visits the high-tech substation that monitors and controls the Academy…and maybe more? Life in Springfield is far more ominous than he realized and could prove a danger to his tech-averse mom, and Stan’s dojo education comes with the responsibility to protect his new home. Skovron keeps the tech elements reader friendly, with the wide-eyed protagonist serving as a stand-in for readers who enter this wondrous new world and confront the forces of evil while learning its powerful secrets. Stan’s family emigrated from Poland; students at Springfield Academy are diverse in race and nationality.
A buoyant adventure combining colorful characters, a brisk pace, and cyber acumen. (Science fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: July 26, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-4197-5440-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
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
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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