A beautifully resonant work for the plugged-in set.
An isolated loner discovers a magical hidden gaming spot.
Anxious 12-year-old Geordie dreads being forced to talk. When his science teacher assigns the five lowest-scoring students to do their science fair project together, Geordie’s Scottish immigrant father is glad that at least he’s hanging out with other kids. Pale, red-headed Geordie ends up connecting with his classmates, who also play Dominion, an MMORPG. But as Geordie spends hours on his tablet and gets in trouble at school, his father forbids him to play Dominion anymore. Geordie sneaks out to play, discovering a fort in the woods in a spot that mysteriously has internet access. A cute pig companion appears in the game even as Geordie obsesses over a news story about a pig who escaped from a truck while being driven to the slaughterhouse. Monochromatic flashbacks show scenes of Geordie and his mother, offering insights into the cause of his present-day isolation. The online and offline storylines from Geordie’s life intersect as he brings classmate Samesh Sharma, whom he’s grown especially close to, to the woods and they start gaming together. Geordie finds more joy and takes more risks—but threats to his hideaway’s secrecy arise. This story is nuanced and complicated but easy to follow; it’s rooted in relatable emotions and experiences and unfolds through clear, accessible panels, with gorgeous shading and colorwork. The theme of interconnectivity, bolstered by careful plotting, provides comfort and catharsis.
A beautifully resonant work for the plugged-in set. (science facts) (Graphic fiction. 8-14)Pub Date: May 19, 2026
ISBN: 9781454956211
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Korman’s trademark humor makes this an appealing read.
Will a bully always be a bully?
That’s the question eighth-grade football captain Chase Ambrose has to answer for himself after a fall from his roof leaves him with no memory of who and what he was. When he returns to Hiawassee Middle School, everything and everyone is new. The football players can hardly wait for him to come back to lead the team. Two, Bear Bratsky and Aaron Hakimian, seem to be special friends, but he’s not sure what they share. Other classmates seem fearful; he doesn’t know why. Temporarily barred from football because of his concussion, he finds a new home in the video club and, over time, develops a new reputation. He shoots videos with former bullying target Brendan Espinoza and even with Shoshanna Weber, who’d hated him passionately for persecuting her twin brother, Joel. Chase voluntarily continues visiting the nursing home where he’d been ordered to do community service before his fall, making a special friend of a decorated Korean War veteran. As his memories slowly return and he begins to piece together his former life, he’s appalled. His crimes were worse than bullying. Will he become that kind of person again? Set in the present day and told in the alternating voices of Chase and several classmates, this finding-your-middle-school-identity story explores provocative territory. Aside from naming conventions, the book subscribes to the white default.
Korman’s trademark humor makes this an appealing read. (Fiction. 9-14)Pub Date: May 30, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-338-05377-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
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