by Phyllis Root & illustrated by Rob Shepperson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2010
Ten-year-old Lilly is perfectly content to be hauled around the world by her scientist parents in pursuit of boomerang beetles and lily pad leeches. So when they decide to leave her behind with her gray-as-dust great-uncle Ernest (a librarian!) while they head for the Shipwreck Islands to study the frangipangi fruit fly, she’s crushed. One day chez Uncle Ernest, a flock of homing seagulls delivers an ominous note from her parents: “Have hit reef, sinkin.” The next thing Lilly knows, she’s on a sailboat on her way to rescue them, lost at sea with the frumpy-fierce pirate Mrs. Teagarden: “Aye, well, that’s a problem, trusting pirates. Even if ye’re a pirate yerself,” she says. Lilly, a notorious worrywart, especially about the treacherous sea, finds her fears blasted away by the ocean spray when she bravely takes the tiller of Last Chance. This transformation from skittish bookworm to swashbuckling pirate girl is the real buried treasure in this enjoyably preposterous, emotionally resonant, library-revering adventure. Shepperson’s cartoonish pencil illustrations are as wonderfully detailed, action-packed and good-humored as the story. (Adventure. 8-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59078-583-6
Page Count: 116
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2010
Share your opinion of this book
More by Phyllis Root
BOOK REVIEW
by Phyllis Root & Gary D. Schmidt ; illustrated by Melissa Sweet
BOOK REVIEW
by Liza Ketchum & Jacqueline Briggs Martin & Phyllis Root ; illustrated by Claudia McGehee
BOOK REVIEW
by Phyllis Root ; illustrated by Betsy Bowen
by Dav Pilkey ; illustrated by Dav Pilkey ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 15, 2013
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
Share your opinion of this book
More In The Series
by Dav Pilkey ; illustrated by Dav Pilkey
More by Dav Pilkey
BOOK REVIEW
by Dav Pilkey ; illustrated by Dav Pilkey color by Jose Garibaldi & Wes Dzioba
BOOK REVIEW
by Dav Pilkey ; illustrated by Dav Pilkey ; color by Jose Garibaldi & Wes Dzioba
BOOK REVIEW
by Dav Pilkey ; illustrated by Dav Pilkey ; color by Jose Garibaldi & Wes Dzioba
by Jarrett Lerner ; illustrated by Jarrett Lerner ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 12, 2017
A boisterous balance of potty humor and geek pride in this rollicking young engineer’s adventure, the first of two.
A gang of science nerds unwittingly unleashes a squadron of destructive robots and must engineer a way to save the town in Lerner’s debut novel.
When a mysterious box appears outside Kennedy’s house, he enlists the help of best friend and fellow EngiNerd Dan to sift through the metal parts and hardware. Together, they piece together a polite but ravenous robot named Greeeg. The robot eats all the food in the house—refusing only radishes—and Kennedy discovers that Greeeg is both insatiable and unmanageable. The potential for catastrophe is fully realized when Greeeg propulsively “disposes” (that’s robot defecation) tiny, window-shattering, brown-black cubes. Is the robot from Grandpa K., Kennedy’s hero and a former engineer? Is it coincidence that his best friend also hates radishes? Unfortunately, Kennedy isn’t the only one with a robot problem. Eighteen bullet-farting robots storm town, and the EngiNerds must band together and use ingenuity to prevent the robots from consuming and destroying everything in their wake. Sci-fi readers will enjoy the science and tinkering, but dangerous excreta is pure schoolboy horseplay. The story includes clever duct-tape solutions, the construction of catapults from disposable chopsticks, and a good, old-fashioned water fight in this action-packed celebration of nerd culture. The absence of ethnic markers implies that Kennedy is white, but the surnames of the EngiNerds suggest a diverse assemblage.
A boisterous balance of potty humor and geek pride in this rollicking young engineer’s adventure, the first of two. (Science fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-6872-5
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
Share your opinion of this book
More by Jarrett Lerner
BOOK REVIEW
by Jarrett Lerner ; illustrated by Jarrett Lerner
BOOK REVIEW
by Jarrett Lerner ; illustrated by Jarrett Lerner
BOOK REVIEW
by Jarrett Lerner ; illustrated by Jarrett Lerner
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.