Action-packed though sometimes murky in mechanics; not so murky is its free-and-easy use of indigenous tropes.
Sam and Glory are back, pinballing among time periods to defeat evil.
Sam’s arms are literally snakes whose aim and trigger-pulling skills make him a sharpshooter, and although he’s not a titular character as in predecessor The Legend of Sam Miracle (2016), white Sam’s front and center. Possibly mixed-race Glory’s happy with her role “guiding the hero, motivating the hero, saving the hero,” and slicing through time streams with time-wielding skills that she’s learning on the fly. The workings of time are sometimes hard to understand (a hand holds “a smooth rod of watery time”), and characters’ physical movements in action scenes are sometimes hard to follow. Still, the pages of action turn pretty quickly—volcanoes destroy cities, leviathan rises from the sea, a motorcycle rides on water, comic books of the characters’ lives change as they live the story—though ornate descriptions sometimes hinder pace. The primary villain is El Buitre, “a bloodthirsty, time-walking, arch-outlaw”; for El Buitre’s army of darkness, Wilson appropriates elements of Diné (Navajo) religion as well as Aztec characterizations. Navajo Peter, a main character in the series, is out of commission for much of the book, compounding the problematic misuse. A Peter Pan theme mainly serves to cement some retrograde gender roles.
Action-packed though sometimes murky in mechanics; not so murky is its free-and-easy use of indigenous tropes. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-232729-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
A successful call for creating and imagining, even if the story itself falls short.
In the dystopian, totalitarian world of 2099, 14-year-old Tessa and her family are desperate to solve the mystery of her twin brother Theo’s disappearance.
Tessa is growing up in a time when playgrounds are historical relics, surveillance cameras are everywhere, music is outlawed, and owning books is illegal. Under the absolute rule of Zokiris, the decadeslong leader of her territory, people are heavily controlled. When Theo vanishes under mysterious circumstances and his name is erased from the Territory Statistics list, Tessa’s 135-year-old neighbor, Miriam, gives the family contraband books that become central to figuring out Theo’s whereabouts. Most books have long since been seized and stored away in Building 903; Tessa is intrigued by their presence in her home, while her mother is terrified. Lowry, the acclaimed, award-winning author of The Giver (1993), shines in her creation of uncomfortably believable dystopian societies. Tessa’s painfully limited world is fully imagined, with its own history, laws, and norms. Her relationship with her brother reads as realistic and tender and is crucial to the mystery. Miriam is the most strongly developed character: wise and independent, unafraid and hopeful. While the climb to the book’s climax is captivating, the hurried resolution is disappointing. The powerful messaging around the importance of literature and imagination certainly resonates, however. The main characters present white.
A successful call for creating and imagining, even if the story itself falls short. (Dystopian. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780063515109
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
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
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