Readers ready for a strong dose of survival and war action will find this well-researched episode entirely gripping.
This survival tale highlights one of the worst sea disasters of World War II: the sinking of the USS Indianapolis in 1945.
It’s recounted by Patrick, a 12-year-old caring for his younger brother, mute ever since the two were evacuated without their parents from Manila in 1941. Desperate to find their parents, the siblings have stowed away on the Indy with the help of Benny, a tough-talking Marine with a heart of gold. When Benny shares his opinions and philosophies, his experiences and prejudices are on the surface. He has choice words for both Japanese troops and the U.S. Navy. But in the end, he is never too harsh a judge and instills in Patrick the Marine code: never leave a man behind. Benny will live and die fulfilling this promise to his charges. Descriptions of the explosions onboard are graphic; men are maimed and killed. Benny gets the brothers off the ship, where new trials begin. They float at sea for days on a soggy pallet; heatstroke, dehydration, and delirium set in; sharks circle. The carnage is gruesome. Given Benny’s essential kindness, it’s unfortunate that at one point, while prodding the boys, he tells them they are swimming like “pansies.” Extensive backmatter rounds out the incredible history.
Readers ready for a strong dose of survival and war action will find this well-researched episode entirely gripping. (Historical fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: June 30, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-545-72602-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2015
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
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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