by Lisa McMann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 2013
Projected to run through four more volumes, the storyline doesn’t advance much here—but the quick pace, unresolved issues...
McMann builds her newly minted mage’s self-confidence, firms up some emotional hookups and pitches her burgeoning cast into a series of rescues in this middle volume.
The story opens with a crisis carried over from the previous episode and closes with a sudden attack by parties unknown. In between, Alex Stowe solves a riddle left by founding wizard Marcus Today to restore the Unwanteds’ magic school of Artimé, then leads an expedition of magical squirrelicorns, origami dragons and other constructs, along with the giant, flying, stone cheetah Simber, to Warbler Island to rescue imprisoned fellow students Samheed and Lani. Meanwhile, Alex is also bumbling his way through a growing attachment to Sky (who makes his heart “swish”) while his evil Wanted twin, Aaron, is shakily usurping the office of high priest in neighboring Quill. Readers who aren’t fresh on the content of the two preceding volumes will struggle to keep all the characters distinct, but the author chucks in comical byplay and even vomit jokes to keep things from getting too serious, and she breaks the tale into dozens of short chapters to goose up the action.
Projected to run through four more volumes, the storyline doesn’t advance much here—but the quick pace, unresolved issues and Hogwarts-ian setting will keep the audience Wanting more. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4424-5845-1
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: May 29, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
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by Dav Pilkey & illustrated by Dav Pilkey ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 28, 2012
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
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by Dav Pilkey ; illustrated by Dav Pilkey ; color by Jose Garibaldi & Wes Dzioba
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by Katherine Marsh ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 7, 2018
A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high...
Two parallel stories, one of a Syrian boy from Aleppo fleeing war, and another of a white American boy, son of a NATO contractor, dealing with the challenges of growing up, intersect at a house in Brussels.
Ahmed lost his father while crossing the Mediterranean. Alone and broke in Europe, he takes things into his own hands to get to safety but ends up having to hide in the basement of a residential house. After months of hiding, he is discovered by Max, a boy of similar age and parallel high integrity and courage, who is experiencing his own set of troubles learning a new language, moving to a new country, and being teased at school. In an unexpected turn of events, the two boys and their new friends Farah, a Muslim Belgian girl, and Oscar, a white Belgian boy, successfully scheme for Ahmed to go to school while he remains in hiding the rest of the time. What is at stake for Ahmed is immense, and so is the risk to everyone involved. Marsh invites art and history to motivate her protagonists, drawing parallels to gentiles who protected Jews fleeing Nazi terror and citing present-day political news. This well-crafted and suspenseful novel touches on the topics of refugees and immigrant integration, terrorism, Islam, Islamophobia, and the Syrian war with sensitivity and grace.
A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high values in the face of grave risk and succeed in drawing goodwill from others. (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-30757-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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by Katherine Marsh ; illustrated by Kelly Murphy
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