A heartfelt, somber story skillfully infused with magic and adventure.
Helped by a deck of cards that comes to life, a boy learns to cope with loss, displacement, and bullying in this debut middle-grade novel.
Twelve-year-old Alexander Finn lives in Ridge Park, New York. He is a star lacrosse player and learns magic tricks from his father—a famous magician. Life is good. But when his dad is killed during a performance, Alex and his mom have to relocate to Orchard, a small town in Maine. Still grieving, Alex is plunged into a new and miserable life. He hates his new house and the apple-obsessed Orchard with its small-town ways. Most of all, he hates his new school—a hotbed of bullying and football (no lacrosse). Just when Orchard seems truly unbearable, Alex discovers a pack of cards his father left him. These are no ordinary cards. In Alex’s presence, they come to life. He meets King Anton and Queen Olivia (the King and Queen of Hearts); their nervous son, Jack; and the mischievous Joker as well as all the Spade, Club, and Diamond families. Only Alex can see them—to anyone else, they appear as ordinary cards—but they lift his spirits and encourage him to pursue magic. Alex even wins a magic contest. But when criminals steal his cards, Alex’s life goes from bad to worse. Can he save his new friends and make a home for himself in Orchard? Whereas the book’s title might suggest a lighthearted, invented-world fantasy, Kutscera has written a serious work of magic realism exploring relevant and contemporary themes. The prose and dialogue are polished, and the plot, though straightforward, builds steadily toward an age-suitable climax. Though the bullying Alex suffers is of the endemic, senseless variety, it is not too distressing. Young readers are invited to relate to Alex—to his troubles and feelings—and yet allowed to delight in the courtly good nature and whimsy of the cards. The minor characters (particularly Alex’s mom and his classmate Lindsay) are given deft touches of individuality. The author’s full-page pencil drawings effectively capture Alex’s washed-out despair.
A heartfelt, somber story skillfully infused with magic and adventure.Pub Date: April 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73289-354-2
Page Count: 177
Publisher: Blue Whale Press
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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