Well-done fluff.
Following his eponymous debut (2018), Thundercluck and his Valkyrie friend team up again to solve a mystery and save the day.
It’s a lovely day for a picnic, until giant fire-breathing ants come to ruin the meal. Thundercluck and Brunhilde defeat them with some sweet moves but soon learn that another problem is plaguing Asgard: lost library books. As in the first installment, these ridiculous problems are treated with grave sincerity, a mood aided by prophecies delivered in perfect scansion. The menacing trio of Gorman the angry skull, Medda the shape-shifting trickstress, and War-Tog the lovable man-pig do their best to thwart the girl and chicken while a cast of Norse deities watches from afar. There are some slightly more serious ideas tackled here as well, as Brunhilde reunites with the mother she thought had abandoned her, and she and Thundercluck learn how to work through conflict and apologize for hurting each other. The plot rushes from adventure to adventure, barely held together by ludicrous problems involving a stolen library card and a Book Wyrm who just needs some help turning pages. A large font, generous leading, and amusing spot illustrations throughout help keep the pages turning, continuing the sure success this is to find among reluctant readers eager for something with Percy Jackson appeal and Wimpy Kid readability.
Well-done fluff. (Animal fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-15530-6
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
"The short, sad life of Tooley Graham was over," doesn't sound like a happy conclusion but is pitch perfect in this short, simple and endearing middle-grade novel that follows on the heels of The Small Adeventure of Popeye and Elvis (2009). Owen Jester is focused on several things during his summer vacation: finding a way to keep his trapped "pet" bullfrog alive and happy, locating what fell off a train with a loud crash! one night and keeping annoying next-door neighbor Viola—who knows everything—out of their business as he schemes with his two best friends, Stumpy and Travis. The discovery of a sleek, red two-person submarine in the brush alongside the tracks changes everything. Can three young, girl-hating boys and a willing and very able—and tolerant—girl move a submarine to Graham Pond? If they manage that, will they ever be able to pilot it? In the heat of a languid Georgia summer vacation, in the dreams of irrepressible youth, anything is possible. O'Connor has spun a lovely read that perfectly captures the schemes and plans of school-age kids in the long days of summer. (Fiction. 8-11)
Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-374-36850-0
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Fans of unbridled, melodramatic tomfoolery will be over the moon.
A taste of poisoned soup spurs the Queen of the Moon and her feline companion into embarking on a quest for a curative fruit from the orbiting orb’s only golden glumpfoozle tree.
In further exploits attended by the monosyllabic, spacesuit-clad titular feline (“Meow”), Harris and Barnett bring back the cast of The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza (2022), from diaper-wearing buccaneer Captain Babybeard to computerized toenail clipper LOZ 4000, for a lunar ramble past a pair of mysterious killbots, Psychic Flying Eyeballs of Death, and other hazards. Depicted in rolling arrays of changing palettes and panel sizes and led by the opalescent Queen of the Moon—who, ignoring her loudly rumbling tummy, stoutly declares that “my reign will not be cut short by soup”—the expedition fetches up at last on the edge of a bottomless crater for a last-minute save, appropriately over-the-top grandstanding by a familiar AI with futile protagonistic ambitions (“How many pages did I get this time? 73?”), and a closing celebratory soupfest, depicted Last Supper–style by a vermiform da Vinci. This volume continues the nonstop madcap fun; returning readers will not be disappointed, and new ones will quickly become avid followers of the world’s first feline astronaut.
Fans of unbridled, melodramatic tomfoolery will be over the moon. (Graphic science fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9780063084117
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
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