by Mark Maciejewski ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 17, 2018
Another crowd pleaser: funny, intelligent, and richly spiced with gross bits.
Talented prankster Maciek “Chub” Trzebiatowski vows to go straight in seventh grade…with predictable results.
Chub’s resolve to keep his nose clean doesn’t last past the second day as he finds himself, along with nemesis/ex-friend Archer, pre-placed at the top of draconian new principal Gunborg Lockhart’s hit list due to their extensive records of past misdeeds. The prospect of instant expulsion on the slightest pretext forces the two into reluctant alliance when Lockhart’s prized artwork Electric Kangaroo—by renowned one-armed glass artist Wahoolie but so resembling a pile of purple snot that Chub dubs it Electric Boogerloo—is stolen by parties unknown. Bald since second grade due to a misguided chemistry experiment and glib as all get out, the ever enterprising Chub makes a memorable narrator as he dishes up a lively account of the ensuing desperate search for clues to the culprit. He also heads a posse of classmates who likewise display as many human quirks as comedic ones, such as Levi “Moby” Dick, who is intestinally hyperactive and so the (literal) butt of many gags but, with no motive beyond altruism, impulsively surprises Chub with a rare and coveted comic. Aside from comics-loving Japanese-American newcomer Megumi, the Seattle cast presents as white.
Another crowd pleaser: funny, intelligent, and richly spiced with gross bits. (Fiction. 11-14)Pub Date: July 17, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4814-6423-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
Share your opinion of this book
More by Mark Maciejewski
BOOK REVIEW
by Paolo Bacigalupi ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 10, 2013
Not for the faint of heart or stomach (or maybe of any parts) but sure to be appreciated by middle school zombie cognoscenti.
Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle meets Left for Dead/The Walking Dead/Shaun of the Dead in a high-energy, high-humor look at the zombie apocalypse, complete with baseball (rather than cricket) bats.
The wholesome-seeming Iowa cornfields are a perfect setting for the emergence of ghastly anomalies: flesh-eating cows and baseball-coach zombies. The narrator hero, Rabi (for Rabindranath), and his youth baseball teammates and friends, Miguel and Joe, discover by chance that all is not well with their small town’s principal industry: the Milrow corporation’s giant feedlot and meat-production and -packing facility. The ponds of cow poo and crammed quarters for the animals are described in gaggingly smelly detail, and the bone-breaking, bloody, flesh-smashing encounters with the zombies have a high gross-out factor. The zombie cows and zombie humans who emerge from the muck are apparently a product of the food supply gone cuckoo in service of big-money profits with little concern for the end result. It’s up to Rabi and his pals to try to prove what’s going on—and to survive the corporation’s efforts to silence them. Much as Bacigalupi’s Ship Breaker (2010) was a clarion call to action against climate change, here’s a signal alert to young teens to think about what they eat, while the considerable appeal of the characters and plot defies any preachiness.
Not for the faint of heart or stomach (or maybe of any parts) but sure to be appreciated by middle school zombie cognoscenti. (Fiction. 11-14)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-316-22078-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2013
Share your opinion of this book
More by Paolo Bacigalupi
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
by Susin Nielsen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 11, 2018
An outstanding addition to the inadequate-parent genre.
For 12-year-old, “fifty percent Swedish, twenty-five percent Haitian, twenty-five percent French” Felix, all of his scary stories are about the Ministry of Children and Family Development—the Canadian agency that has the power to take him from his mom and place him in foster care.
His flighty mother, Astrid (she’s the Swedish part), is both depressed and chronically under- or often unemployed. His father is mostly out of the picture. Astrid will do what she needs to, including artfully lying and stealing, to keep their heads—barely—above water as they descend into homelessness. As depicted with gritty realism, the pair has been living in a van for months, using public restrooms, and rarely having enough to eat. But Felix has two great friends, Winnie, who is Asian, and Dylan, who is white; they will watch his back whatever comes. Sadly, they have little idea of his truly dire situation since he’s so resourceful at hiding his problems in order to stave off the MCFD. When Felix is selected to appear on a quiz show, it seems as if it could offer a resolution for their troubles: Winning would earn him a $25,000 prize. Felix’s deeply engrossing and fully immersive first-person narrative of homelessness is both illuminating and heartbreaking. Although the story ends with hope for the future, it’s his winsome and affecting determination that will win readers over.
An outstanding addition to the inadequate-parent genre. (Fiction. 11-14)Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6834-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Wendy Lamb/Random
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
Share your opinion of this book
More by Susin Nielsen
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
by Susin Nielsen ; illustrated by Olivia Chin Mueller
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.