A quick, seasonal read likely to enchant the imaginations of young readers.
In Cary’s debut chapter book for young readers, three friends spend their summer in the company of fairies.
When school lets out and fireflies blink one by one into sight, summer has arrived. Cary adds magic to the familiar days of childhood by lighting the night sky with fairies in a book geared toward late elementary– and early middle school–readers. Siblings Nina and Jack, along with their cousin, Dee, discover the minuscule realm of fairies when a storm wrecks the home of two of the creatures, forcing them apart. With the help of fairy Lily, the children nurse the wounded Luna back to health through the magic found in a secret cavern, and their new winged-friends return the favor later on. The prose is clumsy at the book’s outset, as the author tries to find a balance between retrospective storytelling and simple past tense (“I hate it when she calls me String Bean. It reminds me that I’m too straight and tall.”), and every so often cliché disrupts the suspense and flow of the story (“If we’d known what was ahead of us, things would have been different.”). After a rough start, the story moves along without problem, and the dialogue mostly rings true to how children speak. Wing dust is imbued with special powers to heighten human hearing, enabling the children to communicate with fairykind. This unusual touch, among others, distinguishes Cary’s version of fey creatures from standard depictions. Most effective are scenes shown from the fairies’ perspectives, which skillfully illustrate the everyday encounters of tiny beings in a huge, unpredictable world.
A quick, seasonal read likely to enchant the imaginations of young readers.Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2012
ISBN: 978-1463782597
Page Count: 160
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 23, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A solid series starter for tinkerers and adventurers alike.
Even robot cats have a mind of their own.
All 12-year-old Canadian Lacey Chu’s ever wanted was to become a companioneer like her idol, Monica Chan, co-founder of the largest tech firm in North America, Moncha Corp., and mastermind behind the baku. Bakus, “robotic pets with all the features of a smartphone,” revolutionized society and how people interact with technology. As a companioneer, Lacey could work on bakus: designing, innovating, and building. When she receives a grant rejection from Profectus Academy of Science and Technology, a school that guarantees employment at Moncha Corp., she’s devastated. A happenstance salvaging of a mangled cat baku might just change the game. Suddenly, Lacey’s got an in with Profectus and is one step closer to her dream. Jinx, however, is not quite like the other bakus—he’s a wild cat that does things without commands. Together with Jinx, Lacey will have to navigate competitive classmates and unsettling corporate secrets. McCulloch effectively strikes a balance between worldbuilding and action. High-stakes baku battles demonstrate the emotional bond between (robotic) pet and owner. Readers will also connect to the relationships the Asian girl forges with her diverse classmates, including a rivalry with Carter (a white boy who’s the son of Moncha’s other co-founder, Eric Smith), a burgeoning crush on student Tobias, who’s black, and evolving friendships new and old. While some mysteries are solved, a cliffhanger ending raises even more for the next installment.
A solid series starter for tinkerers and adventurers alike. (Science fiction. 8-13)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4926-8374-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019
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