More feisty feminist fun.
The scouts of Roanoke cabin return for new sleep-away-camp shenanigans.
At Miss Qiunzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s camp for Hardcore Lady-Types, girls are preparing for campwide Galaxy Wars, a space-themed competition. The inhabitants of Roanoke cabin—Mal, Molly, April, Jo, and Ripley—feel the pressure to be victorious, and not just in the contest. Science-loving Jo has received an offer from a prestigious astronomy program that would mean she would have to leave her friends and all the fun behind; musical Mal is having trouble passing the multi-instrument test to earn a Tha’s Accordion to You badge and begins to question her tuneful talents. Meanwhile, scrappy Ripley befriends a cheese-obsessed, talking mouse with a secret. As their own anxieties mount and the pressure to win Galaxy Wars intensifies, will the girls be able to handle it all? This second volume in the middle-grade series maintains all of the best elements of both its prose predecessor and its comics roots, from its zippy signature argot (bons mots such as “Where the Roxane Gay are you going?”) to a diverse cast of characters. Out of the five main protagonists, three are girls of color (although not explicitly stated in this volume), and two of them—Mal and Molly—are a harmonious and supportive couple; a secondary character at the camp is nonbinary. In today’s highly competitive world, the insistence that having fun trumps winning is a delightful departure.
More feisty feminist fun. (Fantasy. 7-14)Pub Date: May 8, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2868-6
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
We challenge anyone to read this and keep a straight face.
Four misunderstood villains endeavor to turn over a new leaf…or a new rap sheet in Blabey's frenzied romp.
As readers open the first page of this early chapter book, Mr. Wolf is right there to greet them, bemoaning his reputation. "Just because I've got BIG POINTY TEETH and RAZOR-SHARP CLAWS and I occasionally like to dress up like an OLD LADY, that doesn't mean… / … I'm a BAD GUY." To prove this very fact, Mr. Wolf enlists three equally slandered friends into the Good Guys Club: Mr. Snake (aka the Chicken Swallower), Mr. Piranha (aka the Butt Biter), and Mr. Shark (aka Jaws). After some convincing from Mr. Wolf, the foursome sets off determined to un-smirch their names (and reluctantly curbing their appetites). Although these predators find that not everyone is ready to be at the receiving end of their helpful efforts, they use all their Bad Guy know-how to manage a few hilarious good deeds. Blabey has hit the proverbial nail on the head, kissed it full on the mouth, and handed it a stick of Acme dynamite. With illustrations that startle in their manic comedy and deadpan direct address and with a narrative that follows four endearingly sardonic characters trying to push past (sometimes successfully) their fear-causing natures, this book instantly joins the classic ranks of Captain Underpants and The Stinky Cheese Man.
We challenge anyone to read this and keep a straight face. (Fiction. 7-11)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-91240-2
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish.
The dreary prospect of spending a lifetime making caskets instead of wonderful inventions prompts a young orphan to snatch up his little sister and flee. Where? To the circus, of course.
Fortunately or otherwise, John and 6-year-old Page join up with Boz—sometime human cannonball for the seedy Wandering Wayfarers and a “vertically challenged” trickster with a fantastic gift for sowing chaos. Alas, the budding engineer barely has time to settle in to begin work on an experimental circus wagon powered by chicken poop and dubbed (with questionable forethought) the Autopsy. The hot pursuit of malign and indomitable Great-Aunt Beauregard, the Coggins’ only living relative, forces all three to leave the troupe for further flights and misadventures. Teele spins her adventure around a sturdy protagonist whose love for his little sister is matched only by his fierce desire for something better in life for them both and tucks in an outstanding supporting cast featuring several notably strong-minded, independent women (Page, whose glare “would kill spiders dead,” not least among them). Better yet, in Boz she has created a scene-stealing force of nature, a free spirit who’s never happier than when he’s stirring up mischief. A climactic clutch culminating in a magnificently destructive display of fireworks leaves the Coggin sibs well-positioned for bright futures. (Illustrations not seen.)
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish. (Adventure. 11-13)Pub Date: April 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234510-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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