This word-based adventure falters in its oversimplification of a complicated place.
Two best friends have an etymological adventure.
Normally, Eddie, a White boy, and MJ, an Indian American girl, spend their sleepover Saturdays playing and watching movies. One special Saturday, however, they uncover Eddie’s grandfather’s tome on word origins. When they open what they call the Awesome Enchanted Book, it magically whisks them away to the Indian city of Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. There, they meet a young Rajasthani prince named Dev who needs to find his family’s ancestral treasure to rebuild a village school destroyed in a typhoon. But Dev isn’t the only one after the treasure: A mustache-twirling White man named Mr. Raffles wants that money too. Together, the three kids race to solve the word-related clues in order to find the treasure first. While this etymologically themed series opener’s premise is promising, its execution oversimplifies India's complexity. Dev, for example, comes from a Hindu dynasty even though the book takes place largely in and around a city and monument constructed by ancient Muslim rulers, who are never mentioned as such. Additionally, the words tufan (source of typhoon) and pajama are identified only as Hindi in the glossary despite their journeys through Arabic and/or Persian; the phrase Holy Cow is introduced with no explanation of its colonialist origins. These choices shortchange both readers and premise. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
This word-based adventure falters in its oversimplification of a complicated place. (Fantasy. 8-10)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-72822-205-9
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore
Review Posted Online: Aug. 10, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Funny sci-fi and comic-book adventures rolled into one heavily illustrated novel.
Two best friends find their lives transformed when they meet a time-traveling T. rex.
Fearful Tim Sullivan couldn’t be more different than adventurous Tito Delgado. When Oskar’s Transtemporal Theropod Transporter 3.0 lands in Tim’s backyard, Tito befriends the talking dinosaur, but Tim is much warier. Things keep happening that prove him right. First Tim drinks all the IMPOSSIBLE JUICE™ and then finds out it was the only fuel source onboard. Now Oskar is stuck in the present and cannot travel back to his own time. The juice gives Tim a superpower that brings his worries to life, but he won’t understand that for a while. Oskar quickly absorbs human knowledge via the internet and then produces SARA, “the nicest, smartest, and most powerful virtual assistant ever created.” Little does he know that SARA will turn evil and begin a series of battles with her creator and the two friends that will involve poop, giant “flying duck-shaped robots,” a honey badger, and Tim’s finally discovered superpower. This over-the-top humorous fantasy mashes up technology (even including a chart of the binary code for each letter of the alphabet, with a coded message for readers to decipher), comic-book tropes, weird animals, and scatological humor, with cartoon-style digital illustrations on almost every page that will keep readers poring over the details. Latine Tito inserts occasional Spanish phrases into his dialogue; Tim and most other human characters read as White.
Funny sci-fi and comic-book adventures rolled into one heavily illustrated novel. (Fantasy. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5344-9269-1
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Thoroughly entertaining and suspenseful. Kids will eagerly await the next volume.
The peaceful life Idris shares with his mum is upended when her boyfriend, David García, and his daughter, Lucía, come to stay for half term.
Though Idris knows his mom is a worker in a paper clip factory, Lucía is convinced that she is really a spy. Idris is skeptical, but Lucía, a spy enthusiast herself, becomes more suspicious when three pangolins are stolen from the zoo where her veterinarian dad works. And, even more strangely, on a trip to the zoo the next day, Idris’ mum seems to be associating with a vulturelike man named Victor. After Mum goes missing, Idris works with Lucía to find her and uncover the mystery of the stolen pangolins. Idris must come to terms with the realization that his mother has been keeping a secret from him, but, when they are reunited, she assures him her parental love was never in doubt. In this book, the first of a new adventure spy series, veteran author McNab and TV personality and veterinarian French have created a fast-paced spy caper complete with good guys to root for, nefarious villains, and plot twists. An animal lover, Idris is a relatable narrator; his interactions with Philby, Lucía’s dog, and Budi, an unhappy and withdrawn ape, will resonate with readers. Some British vocabulary appears but will be easily understood through context. Idris and his mother appear light-skinned in the illustrations; Lucía and her father are cued as Latine.
Thoroughly entertaining and suspenseful. Kids will eagerly await the next volume. (Fiction. 8-10)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-80130-030-8
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Welbeck Flame
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022
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