Piracy, pyrotechnics, prison—prodigious
It’s what inside that counts—particularly when it’s a ciphered secret hidden in your blood.
In this sequel to A Riddle in Ruby (2015), Ruby Teach has been taken prisoner by her nemesis, Wisdom Rool. Prison, as it turns out, is a fortressed training camp for reeves, the crown’s warriors and spies and the thorns in Ruby’s side. When a creepy doctor there pledges to interpret the secret in Ruby’s blood, Stockholm syndrome surfaces, and she decides siding with Rool has a certain appeal. As her father and friends battle wilderness and bounty hunters to rescue her, Ruby struggles to comprehend what secrets stream through her veins, what the moral repercussions for serving Rool may be, and what the actual threat to Colonial America is. Where Book 1 stumbled in finding its meter, here there is no faltering, just momentum. Wilderness, fortresses, predatory cats, and a yeti for good measure transmute a game of find-the-Ruby into a combustive delight. Fans of Snicket-ian gloom will revel in the thrill that the oft-grim landscapes proffer. Dastardly, heroic, and powerful roles are played by both sexes, but this tale is well-populated by members of the not-so-weaker sex who are ready to throw a punch. In this alternative Colonial America the demographic tends toward white. However, good vs. evil vs. undecided serves the conflict more than race or socio-economic cataloging.
Piracy, pyrotechnics, prison—prodigious .(Fantasy. 10-13)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-236837-9
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This can’t be the last we ever hear of the Legendary Alston Boys of the purely surreal Logan County—imaginative,...
Can this really be the first time readers meet the Legendary Alston Boys of Logan County? Cousins and veteran sleuths Otto and Sheed Alston show us that we are the ones who are late to their greatness.
These two black boys are coming to terms with the end of their brave, heroic summer at Grandma’s, with a return to school just right around the corner. They’ve already got two keys to the city, but the rival Epic Ellisons—twin sisters Wiki and Leen—are steadily gaining celebrity across Logan County, Virginia, and have in hand their third key to the city. No way summer can end like this! These young people are powerful, courageous, experienced adventurers molded through their heroic commitment to discipline and deduction. They’ve got their shared, lifesaving maneuvers committed to memory (printed in a helpful appendix) and ready to save any day. Save the day they must, as a mysterious, bendy gentleman and an oversized, clingy platypus have been unleashed on the city of Fry, and all the residents and their belongings seem to be frozen in time and place. Will they be able to solve this one? With total mastery, Giles creates in Logan County an exuberant vortex of weirdness, where the commonplace sits cheek by jowl with the utterly fantastic, and populates it with memorable characters who more than live up to their setting.
This can’t be the last we ever hear of the Legendary Alston Boys of the purely surreal Logan County—imaginative, thrill-seeking readers, this is a series to look out for. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: April 2, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-46083-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Versify/HMH
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
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