A heartfelt sequel that primes audiences for the next installment.
The Magic Misfits are back for another outing.
The second installment in this middle-grade series returns readers to the magic shop in Mineral Wells, where Carter—the protagonist of the first novel—found a family, friends, and a new life. The story centers on Leila, the dark-skinned orphan girl adopted by the Vernons, the gay couple who own the magic shop. The quest for identity is at the center of the tale, as Leila yearns to know why her birthparents abandoned her. The plot thickens when Sandra Santos, a beautiful and mysterious stranger from her father Dante Vernon’s past, sweeps into town, and rumors of hauntings at the Grand Oak Resort seem to be linked to magical misdeeds from Dante’s younger days. Acceptance, love, and understanding are at the heart of this novel, which features a diverse cast of child characters. Readers who love Harris’ (The Magic Misfits, 2017, etc.) screen/stage presence will feel as if he’s sitting next to them reading the words aloud, as the dialogue sounds authentic to his own voice. It is too cutesy at times, but the message that friendship helps children conquer adversity is a welcome one. The recap of the first novel is helpful, but interjected magic-trick instructions break the narrative flow.
A heartfelt sequel that primes audiences for the next installment. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 25, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-39185-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
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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