A high-stakes thrill ride.
Two kids enter a science contest and instead create slime that could take over the world.
White fourth grader Billy Hamilton hates school. He even got in trouble for saying his favorite part is leaving at the end of the day. But unless he wants to be a very old elementary schooler, he must bring up his scores and pass. Unfortunately, that means entering the TV show America’s Got Science competition with the most dedicated student he knows, African American Samantha Baptiste, the principal’s daughter. Not only does Sam love school, science is her favorite subject. The chance to meet her hero, Professor Quandary, the competition’s host, also fuels her drive to win. When Billy learns that his paternal grandmother, Mariana Hamilton, was a scientist, he and Sam use one of her old experiments for their entry. Unfortunately, chaos ensues when the simple slime turns grown-ups into zombies, or rather slimebies. Billy and Sam fight to put an end to the slimebie takeover threatening the science competition—and the town. Gray’s novel bursts with action and heart as Billy and Sam learn how to bridge their academic differences and combine their individual strengths in a refreshing twist on zombie apocalypse scenarios. As the kids take the forefront in the fight against the sentient slime, their actions transform the scientific method from a dry term in textbooks to an exhilarating adventure.
A high-stakes thrill ride. (Science fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-62072-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
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