The plot mechanics may not hold up to scrutiny, but the puzzles are clever, and Maria’s adventures are genuinely thrilling;...
It’s hard to explain why this book feels quite as old-fashioned as it does.
The treasure hunt is a reliable plot device. It’s been used in Treasure Island and episodes of Scooby-Doo. But it seems jarring here, maybe because the rest of the book feels so modern. Maria Mamoun, a Lebanese–Puerto Rican girl, lives in a New York that actually resembles New York, with an “America, Spanish, and Middle Eastern Grocery,” mean girls, and a mother who works two jobs. But when Maria and her mother move to Martha’s Vineyard (where they’re one of the few nonwhite families), Maria discovers an old parchment map with cryptic clues on the bottom. This is where the plot device becomes a problem: if there’s buried treasure on Martha’s Vineyard, the book will feel hokey and contrived. If there isn’t, the ending will feel like a disappointment. The climax of the story turns out to be logical but not quite satisfying. That’s partly because it’s telegraphed in advance but mostly because Chalfoun has relied on another old device: the sitcom plot. If the characters ever actually talked to each other about the rash decisions they were making, the story would fall apart.
The plot mechanics may not hold up to scrutiny, but the puzzles are clever, and Maria’s adventures are genuinely thrilling; that sort of storytelling never gets old. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: July 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-374-30340-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2016
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
A sympathetic, compelling introduction to wolves from the perspective of one wolf and his memorable journey.
Separated from his pack, Swift, a young wolf, embarks on a perilous search for a new home.
Swift’s mother impresses on him early that his “pack belongs to the mountains and the mountains belong to the pack.” His father teaches him to hunt elk, avoid skunks and porcupines, revere the life that gives them life, and “carry on” when their pack is devastated in an attack by enemy wolves. Alone and grieving, Swift reluctantly leaves his mountain home. Crossing into unfamiliar territory, he’s injured and nearly dies, but the need to run, hunt, and live drives him on. Following a routine of “walk-trot-eat-rest,” Swift traverses prairies, canyons, and deserts, encountering men with rifles, hunger, thirst, highways, wild horses, a cougar, and a forest fire. Never imagining the “world could be so big or that I could be so alone in it,” Swift renames himself Wander as he reaches new mountains and finds a new home. Rife with details of the myriad scents, sounds, tastes, touches, and sights in Swift/Wander’s primal existence, the immediacy of his intimate, first-person, present-tense narration proves deeply moving, especially his longing for companionship. Realistic black-and-white illustrations trace key events in this unique survival story, and extensive backmatter fills in further factual information about wolves and their habitat.
A sympathetic, compelling introduction to wolves from the perspective of one wolf and his memorable journey. (additional resources, map) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-289593-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
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