Dotted with significant life lessons for young readers, who might prefer to start with Volume 1
In Volume 3 of the Coin Slot Chronicles, 11-year-old Arcade Livingston and older sister Zoe must harness their patience and compassion.
Retired NFL running back Jennings, writing with veteran children’s writer Osborne, developed the Arcade Livingston series after finding success with his book for adults, The If in Life (written with Michael Strahan, 2018). As the book opens, the Livingston parents set goals with their children: to step into the positive character traits of patience and compassion, in accordance with their Christian faith (references to which are lightly sprinkled throughout the text). These goals inform the adventures that follow. The novels can stand alone but are deepened when read together, so maybe that’s the best way for readers to understand the full story behind this mysterious Triple T Token and its time-traveling powers. Readers learn that it can take Arcade and Zoe to times and places they’ve never been with strange people surrounding them, yet this story isn’t always about what’s happening way out there. There’s the serious inside things too. There’s Arcade’s best friend, Doug, who is being moved to Florida when he wants nothing more than to be close to his ailing grandmother. Is there something that this mysterious Triple T Token can do about that? Does trying to control the power of the token only create further chaos?
Dotted with significant life lessons for young readers, who might prefer to start with Volume 1 . (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-310-76745-9
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Zonderkidz
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019
Dizzyingly silly.
The famous superhero returns to fight another villain with all the trademark wit and humor the series is known for.
Despite the title, Captain Underpants is bizarrely absent from most of this adventure. His school-age companions, George and Harold, maintain most of the spotlight. The creative chums fool around with time travel and several wacky inventions before coming upon the evil Turbo Toilet 2000, making its return for vengeance after sitting out a few of the previous books. When the good Captain shows up to save the day, he brings with him dynamic action and wordplay that meet the series’ standards. The Captain Underpants saga maintains its charm even into this, the 11th volume. The epic is filled to the brim with sight gags, toilet humor, flip-o-ramas and anarchic glee. Holding all this nonsense together is the author’s good-natured sense of harmless fun. The humor is never gross or over-the-top, just loud and innocuous. Adults may roll their eyes here and there, but youngsters will eat this up just as quickly as they devoured every other Underpants episode.
Dizzyingly silly. (Humor. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-50490-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
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
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