Principled princess fun.
The third installment of the Princess Rules series finds the adventurous princess and her prince allies liberating creatures from undesirable conditions.
The first of the two interconnected stories in this book concerns a juvenile Mammoth and a reformed Sea Serpent whose games outside the palace have become too noisy and rambunctious, irritating the king and queen. Feeling unappreciated, the Sea Serpent takes up with the unpleasant Countess N’Asty and her Rare and Disagreeable Show, which is full of displays of depressed animals. To save the Sea Serpent from his error in judgment, Princess Florizella, younger brother Courier, best friend Prince Bennett, and the Mammoth hatch a rescue plan. In the second, interconnected story, Florizella tries to release a mute bear they liberated from the sideshow into the wild, leaving him alone in the forest. But, wracked with guilt, Florizella soon returns to the scene only to find a ransom note: Bear has been kidnapped by pirates. The princess makes a fervent wish that she might know where Bear is, and lo and behold, she discovers that she has a fairy godmother—one who is frankly exhausted from all the wishes her many, many godchildren regularly demand of her. Lessons of friendship and fair play drive these lively, humorous, fairy-tale–style stories. Florizella’s family reads as White; previous volumes cue Bennett as Black. (Final art not seen.)
Principled princess fun. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 3, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-00-849228-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Harper360
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2022
Epic lunacy.
Will extragalactic rats eat the moon?
Can a cybernetic toenail clipper find a worthy purpose in the vast universe? Will the first feline astronaut ever get a slice of pizza? Read on. Reworked from the Live Cartoon series of homespun video shorts released on Instagram in 2020 but retaining that “we’re making this up as we go” quality, the episodic tale begins with the electrifying discovery that our moon is being nibbled away. Off blast one strong, silent, furry hero—“Meow”—and a stowaway robot to our nearest celestial neighbor to hook up with the imperious Queen of the Moon and head toward the dark side, past challenges from pirates on the Sea of Tranquility and a sphinx with a riddle (“It weighs a ton, but floats on air. / It’s bald but has a lot of hair.” The answer? “Meow”). They endure multiple close but frustratingly glancing encounters with pizza and finally deliver the malign, multiheaded Rat King and its toothy armies to a suitable fate. Cue the massive pizza party! Aside from one pirate captain and a general back on Earth, the human and humanoid cast in Harris’ loosely drawn cartoon panels, from the appropriately moon-faced queen on, is light skinned. Merch, music, and the original episodes are available on an associated website.
Epic lunacy. (Graphic science fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-308408-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
Enigmatic enemies, sabotage, space travel, and short, bone-wracking bits of time travel make for a banging adventure.
All remaining humans are leaving Mars for a distant planet, but departure day goes sideways.
The “burning husk” of Earth fell into the sun five years ago, and Mars is about to become uninhabitable. The Scorpius leaves today with the last 100 million passengers. Thirteen-year-old Liam’s sad to go: he was born on Mars and identifies as a Martian, unconcerned that his Earth heritage is “Thai, Irish, Nigerian, Texan, and like ten more.” His parents and his friend Phoebe’s parents are rushing the final research for terraforming their destination planet when a radioactive explosion, complete with mushroom cloud, blows the lab to bits. The Scorpius departs with Liam’s sister and the 100 million aboard, leaving Liam, Phoebe, and a highly skilled robot functionally alone (their parents are alive but unconscious)—can they catch the Scorpius? Emerson’s story is fast, exciting, and terrifying, involving spacecraft of many sizes, travel through space, more explosions, an alien gadget that shows Liam the near future (and that extraterrestrials exist! Humans hadn’t known), and some shadowy characters. Who’s the blue ET chronologist murdered in Scene 1? Who’s trying to exterminate humankind, and why? How many unrelated ET groups are out there? A stunning reveal at the end will leave readers gasping for the next installment.
Enigmatic enemies, sabotage, space travel, and short, bone-wracking bits of time travel make for a banging adventure. (Science fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-230671-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
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