A few visual quibbles aside, an enjoyable romp that will leave readers salivating for the sequel.
When the queen of England calls, you’d better answer the phone.
Barnett takes his readers on a fun-filled ride across two continents in a mostly not-true adventure starring his childhood self. In this version, young child-of-the-1980s Mac is living in Castro Valley, California, when he receives a telephone call from the queen of England. The queen is missing some valuable treasure and needs Mac to retrieve it for her. While on the case, Mac travels across Europe in an attempt to find the thief and return the treasure to England. Barnett’s tone throughout the story is humorous, lighthearted, and a little glib, and the over-the-top story is sure to appeal to many readers. The references to the 1980s will appeal to adults who are reading aloud but will likely require explanation for the humor to truly hit home with children. (Yes, American blue jeans were a big deal in Russia in the 1980s!) Lowery’s illustrations, rendered in black, blue, and yellow, have an appropriately childlike look; due to both this stylistic choice and the book’s overall cheeky tone, it’s hard to tell whether the occasional inconsistency with the text and from illustration to illustration is intentional. There is no evident ethnic diversity in the background characters, a missed opportunity for some range in an otherwise white-only story.
A few visual quibbles aside, an enjoyable romp that will leave readers salivating for the sequel. (Historical thriller. 8-10)Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-338-14359-1
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Funny sci-fi and comic-book adventures rolled into one heavily illustrated novel.
Two best friends find their lives transformed when they meet a time-traveling T. rex.
Fearful Tim Sullivan couldn’t be more different than adventurous Tito Delgado. When Oskar’s Transtemporal Theropod Transporter 3.0 lands in Tim’s backyard, Tito befriends the talking dinosaur, but Tim is much warier. Things keep happening that prove him right. First Tim drinks all the IMPOSSIBLE JUICE™ and then finds out it was the only fuel source onboard. Now Oskar is stuck in the present and cannot travel back to his own time. The juice gives Tim a superpower that brings his worries to life, but he won’t understand that for a while. Oskar quickly absorbs human knowledge via the internet and then produces SARA, “the nicest, smartest, and most powerful virtual assistant ever created.” Little does he know that SARA will turn evil and begin a series of battles with her creator and the two friends that will involve poop, giant “flying duck-shaped robots,” a honey badger, and Tim’s finally discovered superpower. This over-the-top humorous fantasy mashes up technology (even including a chart of the binary code for each letter of the alphabet, with a coded message for readers to decipher), comic-book tropes, weird animals, and scatological humor, with cartoon-style digital illustrations on almost every page that will keep readers poring over the details. Latine Tito inserts occasional Spanish phrases into his dialogue; Tim and most other human characters read as White.
Funny sci-fi and comic-book adventures rolled into one heavily illustrated novel. (Fantasy. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5344-9269-1
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Thoroughly entertaining and suspenseful. Kids will eagerly await the next volume.
The peaceful life Idris shares with his mum is upended when her boyfriend, David García, and his daughter, Lucía, come to stay for half term.
Though Idris knows his mom is a worker in a paper clip factory, Lucía is convinced that she is really a spy. Idris is skeptical, but Lucía, a spy enthusiast herself, becomes more suspicious when three pangolins are stolen from the zoo where her veterinarian dad works. And, even more strangely, on a trip to the zoo the next day, Idris’ mum seems to be associating with a vulturelike man named Victor. After Mum goes missing, Idris works with Lucía to find her and uncover the mystery of the stolen pangolins. Idris must come to terms with the realization that his mother has been keeping a secret from him, but, when they are reunited, she assures him her parental love was never in doubt. In this book, the first of a new adventure spy series, veteran author McNab and TV personality and veterinarian French have created a fast-paced spy caper complete with good guys to root for, nefarious villains, and plot twists. An animal lover, Idris is a relatable narrator; his interactions with Philby, Lucía’s dog, and Budi, an unhappy and withdrawn ape, will resonate with readers. Some British vocabulary appears but will be easily understood through context. Idris and his mother appear light-skinned in the illustrations; Lucía and her father are cued as Latine.
Thoroughly entertaining and suspenseful. Kids will eagerly await the next volume. (Fiction. 8-10)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-80130-030-8
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Welbeck Flame
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022
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