Space is huge, but Jacob and his friends are about to find out that time is even huger.
Jacob Wonderbar and his friends Sarah Daisy and Dexter head home after Jacob loses his campaign for president of the universe (Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe, 2012)—but they find themselves 50 years in Earth’s future. Jacob's mother tells him the only way to fix things is to find his father, which Jacob has been trying to do for two years. Now he discovers he has to search through all space and time. Mick Cracken (who won the election) is still president 50 years later, and he offers Jacob a time machine. On their trip to the Jurassic Period, the trio stumble upon Sarah's bratty little sister, Chloe...and then things really go off-kilter. An organization of Earth humans called the Strangers is set on the destruction of the Astrals (humans who went into space with Einstein), and if they succeed, Jacob will never exist—since his missing father was an Astral. Bransford finishes his Jacob Wonderbar trilogy with a time-hopping, screwball adventure sure to please fans of the slapstick space antics of the previous volumes. Though it mostly ignores the paradoxes of time travel (the pace doesn't allow for deep thought), this is nevertheless a satisfying series closer.
Steer newbies to the first in the series so they can experience the whole goofy tale. (Humorous science fiction. 8-12)
Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3703-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride.
Zipping back and forth in time atop outsized robo–bell bottoms, mad inventor Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) legs his way to center stage in this slightly less-labored continuation of episode 9.
The action commences after a rambling recap and a warning not to laugh or smile on pain of being forced to read Sarah Plain and Tall. Pilkey first sends his peevish protagonist back a short while to save the Earth (destroyed in the previous episode), then on to various prehistoric eras in pursuit of George, Harold and the Captain. It’s all pretty much an excuse for many butt jokes, dashes of off-color humor (“Tippy pressed the button on his Freezy-Beam 4000, causing it to rise from the depths of his Robo-Pants”), a lengthy wordless comic and two tussles in “Flip-o-rama.” Still, the chase kicks off an ice age, the extinction of the dinosaurs and the Big Bang (here the Big “Ka-Bloosh!”). It ends with a harrowing glimpse of what George and Harold would become if they decided to go straight. The author also chucks in a poopy-doo-doo song with musical notation (credited to Albert P. Einstein) and plenty of ink-and-wash cartoon illustrations to crank up the ongoing frenzy.
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-17536-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
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