A brisk and imaginative, if occasionally uneven, tale of time-travel adventures.
A unique ring sends a girl on a journey back in time in Bird’s SF novel for children.
Australian teenagerJacinta Bowen loves studying history and often spends time outside class with her teacher, Mrs. Tindall, and Mr. Wang, a retired university science lecturer. While at an open-air market with her mother, Rachel, Jacinta visits a tent where she purchases a beautiful ring that seems as if it was made just for her. One day, a lightning storm causes the jewelry to spin on her finger and suddenly, she and Mrs. Tindall go back in time to Norway in the year 940. They return to their own time and place during another lightning storm, and Jacinta learns that Mrs. Tindall, Mr. Wang, and her parents are all members of the Strategic Earth Alliance for the Limitation of Temporal Hijack, or STEALTH—an organization that’s dedicated to returning artifacts, stolen by time-traveling thieves, to their original eras. The group is eager to study her ring, and she joins the organization as a junior time operative. Before long, she agrees to go with the team to the Valley of the Kings in 1274 BCE on a quest to return the stolen throne of Tutankhamun. During the mission, an act of sabotage traps Jacinta in the past, putting her in a race against time to return home. Bird’s book is full of exciting ideas and engaging characters. Jacinta proves to be a likable protagonist whose empathy shines in an early scene in which she defends a classmate from a school bully. However, the narrative’s brisk pace leaves some story elements underdeveloped, and opportunities for more robust worldbuilding get lost. For example, Jacinta’s accelerated training for STEALTH lasts less than a page before “one by one, her instructors signed off on her as mission-ready.” A more detailed description of the process might have yielded intriguing insights into the organization and its history. Still, the novel’s time-hopping premise is irresistible, and the sequences set in the Valley of the Kings are particularly dramatic and gripping.
A brisk and imaginative, if occasionally uneven, tale of time-travel adventures.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A pleasing premise for book lovers.
A fantasy-loving bookworm makes a wonderful, terrible bargain.
When sixth grader Poppy Woodlock’s historic preservationist parents move the family to the Oregon coast to work on the titular stately home, Poppy’s sure she’ll find magic. Indeed, the exiled water nymph in the manor’s ruined swimming pool grants a wish, but: “Magic isn’t free. It cosssts.” The price? Poppy’s favorite book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In return she receives Sampson, a winged lion cub who is everything Poppy could have hoped for. But she soon learns that the nymph didn’t take just her own physical book—she erased Narnia from Poppy’s world. And it’s just the first loss: Soon, Poppy’s grandmother’s journal’s gone, then The Odyssey, and more. The loss is heartbreaking, but Sampson’s a wonderful companion, particularly as Poppy’s finding middle school a tough adjustment. Hartman’s premise is beguiling—plenty of readers will identify with Poppy, both as a fellow bibliophile and as a kid struggling to adapt. Poppy’s repeatedly expressed faith that unveiling Sampson will bring some sort of vindication wears thin, but that does not detract from the central drama. It’s a pity that the named real-world books Poppy reads are notably lacking in diversity; a story about the power of literature so limited in imagination lets both itself and readers down. Main characters are cued White; there is racial diversity in the supporting cast. Chapters open with atmospheric spot art. (This review has been updated to reflect the final illustrations.)
A pleasing premise for book lovers. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9780316448222
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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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