A well-crafted, supernatural pirate tale with a capable, young hero.
A young girl, the descendant of a famous pirate, joins a magic-filled adventure at sea in this launch of a prospective middle-grade series.
Avalina Jones has only hazy memories of her parents, who left her at a Louisiana orphanage six years ago. It turns out they were keeping their daughter, now 10, a secret for her own safety. A scoundrel named Del Maligno long ago vowed revenge against Davy Jones and has since targeted all his heirs. Avalina is the lone survivor. As per her late mother’s wishes, Avalina boards the Aquatiery, one of four schoolships for pirate heirs. The girl and her new friends study, and, like full-fledged pirates, they scrutinize maps and hunt for treasure. Avalina already has enough to worry about; legend says the evil Del Maligno can control the weather. There’s also a chance she’s got Davy Jones’ “Curse of Bad Luck.” Booting Avalina off the ship is evidently someone’s priority, and she soon becomes the No.1 suspect for an onboard murder. Adams’ pirate-centric story teems with entertaining bits of magic. If the students want to eat, they must first catch surprisingly mobile “enchanted food” (even salads). The author nevertheless zeroes in on winsome Avalina and her equally appealing fellow heirs. The narrative lingers on colorful descriptions of the ship’s decks (“rickety, crooked signs” in “sloppy white lettering”) as well as the surrounding ocean’s “pale blue water.” An unknown antagonist on the Aquatiery incites mystery (if Avalina isn’t the killer, then someone else surely is). While the ending satisfies, Adams leaves plenty to explore further in sequels, like Avalina’s ability to breathe underwater, which she keeps mum about.
A well-crafted, supernatural pirate tale with a capable, young hero.Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73713-120-5
Page Count: 366
Publisher: Spyhop Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dizzyingly silly.
The famous superhero returns to fight another villain with all the trademark wit and humor the series is known for.
Despite the title, Captain Underpants is bizarrely absent from most of this adventure. His school-age companions, George and Harold, maintain most of the spotlight. The creative chums fool around with time travel and several wacky inventions before coming upon the evil Turbo Toilet 2000, making its return for vengeance after sitting out a few of the previous books. When the good Captain shows up to save the day, he brings with him dynamic action and wordplay that meet the series’ standards. The Captain Underpants saga maintains its charm even into this, the 11th volume. The epic is filled to the brim with sight gags, toilet humor, flip-o-ramas and anarchic glee. Holding all this nonsense together is the author’s good-natured sense of harmless fun. The humor is never gross or over-the-top, just loud and innocuous. Adults may roll their eyes here and there, but youngsters will eat this up just as quickly as they devoured every other Underpants episode.
Dizzyingly silly. (Humor. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-50490-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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