Fans of How to Capture an Invisible Cat (2015) will find an agreeable extension of its high jinks.
Having “stabilized Nothingness” with gravity waves, supergenius Nate Bannister has created an Infinite Engine, and the nefarious Red Death Tea Society is naturally out to get it.
As megalomaniac supervillain and tea fanatic Jakob Maculte commands not only a veritable army of trained assassins, but teeming clouds of surgically altered bumblebees, it looks like no one can stop him from seizing the Engine and achieving his evil goal of “world domination through science.” No one, that is, except Nate and his resourceful, if only normally bright friend Delphine—with assistance from the hosts of nanobots and other gadgets that pour willy-nilly from the young inventor’s brain. Though Delphine spends so much time punching her insufficiently communicative partner that their relationship has an uncomfortably abusive edge, her comment that she likes her ostracized classmate because he’s smart, not despite it, is well-taken. Also, she proves a sturdy sidekick and problem-solver whether the challenge is saving the world or defusing a romantic rivalry with Betsy, Nate’s mercurial talking car. After narrow squeaks aplenty, the bees and thugs are eventually driven off and Maculte hauled away to (temporary, as it turns out) confinement. Lafontaine adds occasional vignettes featuring an all-white cast of heroic sixth-graders and sinister villains with melodramatic facial hair.
Fans of How to Capture an Invisible Cat (2015) will find an agreeable extension of its high jinks. (Science fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: March 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-61963-897-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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