All monsters, all the time…well, except for those pirates.
A talented young gadgeteer joins the defenders of humanity’s scattered remnants against sea monsters of myth, legend, and prehistory.
Fifty years after the event known as the Tide Rising turned Earth into an ocean planet, 12-year-old Berkley and her best friend, Garth, work as scavengers on the Atlas, the decaying former cruise ship that is their home. Life is hard: Child labor is a necessity, people are crowded onto ships, and the diet is monotonously fish-based. Scavenging is dangerous work that involves diving for materials in abandoned towns now underwater. The two friends are recruited to join the crew of the Britannica, a research submarine designed to study the resurgent flood of marine creatures formerly thought legendary or extinct. Martin positively pours the monsters into this action-oriented adventure, drawing on both outside sources and her imagination to engineer a nonstop series of brushes with boojums ranging from mighty megalodon and evocatively named Hydramonsterus serpentinius to a glutinous “hidden-fanged loogie” and Elmer, a gigantic octopus more mischievous than malign. As, along the way to a climactic rescue, the Britannica is rammed, swallowed whole, even attacked by pirates, Berkley plunges enthusiastically into both studies and narrow squeaks…leaving her well set up for future exploits and terrifying encounters. Berkley and Garth present as White; the supporting cast is varied in skin tone.
All monsters, all the time…well, except for those pirates. (Fantasy. 10-13)Pub Date: June 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-289438-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
Like salted caramel, a perfect balance of flavors, this deftly drawn story is a heartfelt treat.
Two brothers navigate a new country, a new language, and grief through cake.
In this graphic/prose hybrid novel, 12-year-old Jingwen, his little brother, Yanghao, and their mother immigrate to Australia. The family is Chinese, though their home country is never specified. The boys start at the Northbridge Primary School not knowing any English, which has Jingwen feeling they have just arrived on Mars. Quickly he realizes it is he and Yanghao who must appear to be the Martians to everyone else, comically literalized with pictures of a four-eyed, antennae’d Jingwen. While Yanghao quickly picks up English, Jingwen resists, struggling in lessons and to make friends. Piece by piece readers learn it was Jingwen’s father’s dream to open a cake shop called Pie in the Sky in Australia before he suddenly passed away. After finding the family’s cookbook, the boys decide to secretly bake all the Pie in the Sky cakes. Jingwen especially takes it to heart, pouring his grief and frustrations into every frosted layer, believing that it “will fix everything.” Herself an immigrant to Australia from Singapore, Lai unfolds the story like a memory, giving brief flashbacks interspersed throughout the daily musings and nuanced relationships among family members. Jingwen’s emotional journey is grounded in honest reality; it ebbs and flows naturally with strategic spots of humor to lighten the overall tone.
Like salted caramel, a perfect balance of flavors, this deftly drawn story is a heartfelt treat. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 10-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-31409-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
A page-turner that gives the heroic Stonekeepers plenty of chances to show their stuff and moves the main story along an...
Wraithlike attackers force a mass evacuation and a cryptic prophecy’s meaning begins to clear in this headlong continuation of Kibuishi’s deservedly popular series.
The action picks up in midflight as Navin and companions survive the destruction of their giant robot suits, then help the fleeing survivors of the city of Lucien by fighting a rear-guard action against swarms of diaphanous, cat-eyed, zombie-making Dark Scouts. Meanwhile Emily, Trellis and Vigo reluctantly join traitorous elf Max Griffin in another visit to the Voice’s realm of memories that leads to the death of a major character—along with a rescue, reunions with old friends and a lead-in to the next episode. Though the ongoing plotlines and large cast make familiarity with earlier outings a necessity, this one still features a crowd-pleasing blend of lively dialogue (“And I don’t care what the prophecies say. You’re still a slacker”), easy-to-follow, nonstop action, elves, robots and derring-do amid awesome sound effects (“D-DOOOM SHHAAAAAA,” “SZRAK!”). Most of the cleanly drawn, lushly backgrounded panels focus on faces, with occasional full-spread scenes adding dramatic visual highlights.
A page-turner that gives the heroic Stonekeepers plenty of chances to show their stuff and moves the main story along an inch or two. (Graphic fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-43315-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
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