Savvy fun fit for any universe.
Back on their own planet, a group of middle school friends aren’t done trying to save the multiverse—and the multiverse isn’t done with them either.
After an unexpected detour at the tail end of their previous adventure, Dev Khatri, Maeve Greene, Tessa Hawthorne-Scott, Lewis Wynner, and Isaiah Yoon have made their way back to central Ohio’s Conroy Middle School and their lives on Earth, a Dimension14 planet. But unbeknown to the Conroy Cadets marching band members, Maeve’s doppelgänger, Em, has tagged along, escaping the wasteland universe she’d been banished to. While being home and reuniting with family in a more familiar, less giant monster–filled environment has its perks, the pull for the original five kids—plus Tessa’s twin, Zoey, who resents being secretly replaced in the first book—to return to their multiversal hijinks is strong. Not to mention that Em’s constant plotting to get back in the good graces of her planet-destroying family may mean major threats from before are still at play. The warm rapport and slapstick humor the Cadets share is even stronger in this second series entry, as they’ve matured in their grasp of all things multiverse while maintaining an endearing commitment to middle school concerns. Band practice is just as important as closing interdimensional holes, and if a so-called evil doppelgänger can offer a caring, world-shattering touch when needed, hypercompetitive twin sisters might be able to figure it out too. Ethnicity is largely cued through names.
Savvy fun fit for any universe. (Science fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4825-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense.
In the midst of political turmoil, how do you escape the only country that you’ve ever known and navigate a new life? Parallel stories of three different middle school–aged refugees—Josef from Nazi Germany in 1938, Isabel from 1994 Cuba, and Mahmoud from 2015 Aleppo—eventually intertwine for maximum impact.
Three countries, three time periods, three brave protagonists. Yet these three refugee odysseys have so much in common. Each traverses a landscape ruled by a dictator and must balance freedom, family, and responsibility. Each initially leaves by boat, struggles between visibility and invisibility, copes with repeated obstacles and heart-wrenching loss, and gains resilience in the process. Each third-person narrative offers an accessible look at migration under duress, in which the behavior of familiar adults changes unpredictably, strangers exploit the vulnerabilities of transients, and circumstances seem driven by random luck. Mahmoud eventually concludes that visibility is best: “See us….Hear us. Help us.” With this book, Gratz accomplishes a feat that is nothing short of brilliant, offering a skillfully wrought narrative laced with global and intergenerational reverberations that signal hope for the future. Excellent for older middle grade and above in classrooms, book groups, and/or communities looking to increase empathy for new and existing arrivals from afar.
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense. (maps, author’s note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: July 25, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-88083-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
PROFILES
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
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