by Maureen Buchanan Jones ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 6, 2021
Transporting.
An absorbing tale of two young sisters from Halifax, Nova Scotia, who are swept out to sea and their trials and risk-taking as castaways.
It’s 1910, and the girls are summering, as usual, in the village of Mahone Bay while their parents travel to India for work. The two sisters, 11-year-old Maud and 12-year-old Addie Campbell, accidentally drift out to sea in a small dinghy while rowing home after attending the annual social. In the tumult of the storm, they are shipwrecked on an island. As they await rescue, the girls, who come from a financially comfortable White family that has servants, fall into their assumed roles—more feminine and bookish Addie and adventurous, action-oriented Maud. The crisis, however, brings about a new understanding of themselves and each other. They steal eggs from seabirds, swim nearly naked in the ocean, and find a shipwrecked fishing boat containing a skeleton. This story doesn’t simply focus on food and shelter and rescue—it is more literary, revealing the inner lives of the Campbell sisters, which surprise and delight as much as the vivid creatures in the tidal pools. With confident pacing that rises and falls like the waves, the book charts the girls’ progress as they enter survival mode, growing more resilient and resourceful with each test. The ending, however, abruptly brings about questions not previously discussed, which may leave some readers incredulous while others will yearn for a sequel.
Transporting. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64603-060-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Fitzroy Books
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
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by Dav Pilkey ; illustrated by Dav Pilkey ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 26, 2014
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
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by Stuart Gibbs ; illustrated by Anjan Sarkar ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2024
Will satisfy fans but could be better.
Young CIA agent-in-training Benjamin Ripley switches sides—or is he just going undercover?—in this graphic version of the third Spy School caper.
Sticking to the plot of the 2015 original, this episode sees the talented math whiz recruited by nefarious organization SPYDER after being (unjustly, he fumes) kicked out of the CIA’s academy. While training in a hidden school for evildoers with other prospective villains, including Ashley Sparks, a gushy former competitive gymnast with a fondness for portmanteau words (sweet + awesome = swawesome), Ben gets wind of a dastardly scheme to make billions on government construction projects. Hot if inept pursuit by both rival espionage agencies takes Ben from a secret underground command center to the top of the Statue of Liberty. But while the action has a rapid flow in the art (Sarkar is good at portraying fights, high-speed chases, and explosions), several characters are drawn with generic features and such a limited range of expressions that even with help from the cast gallery, it’s hard to tell them apart easily. Still, along with coming through in the suspenseful climax—thanks to clever deductions and quick thinking—by the end, Ben has also achieved a long-sought breakthrough with Erica Hale (code name “Ice Queen”), a superbly omnicompetent schoolmate who has his heart as well as his back. The cast largely presents white.
Will satisfy fans but could be better. (Graphic thriller. 8-12)Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781665931946
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
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