Absurdly funny.
An orange cat and his best friend, the purple hairball he coughed up, save the universe.
The universe is broken, and it’s all the fault of chaotic feline Huck and scientific genius Hairball. After all, it was Huck’s irresponsible use of Hairball’s invention, the titular litterbox time machine, which created an alternate present in which neither of them should exist. The friends—or, as logical and emotionless Hairball calls them, co-workers—must effect a seemingly insignificant positive change in the past to benefit the present and undo the paradox that threatens to end the world. Our heroes, with the random addition of a Black-presenting Timber-Scout named Azrael, who meets them while selling cookies door to door, are pursued through the past and present by elderly, brown-skinned Father Time and blond, blue-eyed Baby New Year, celestial beings tasked with eliminating the time anomaly. Fans of Moyer’s Ham Helsing series will enjoy the book’s irreverent humor, though many of the references feel targeted towards older audiences; it’s unclear whether young readers will understand the ’80s slang and jokes, for example. The humor is also the book’s main focus, to the point that the time-travel ramifications don’t hold up to close scrutiny, making the worldbuilding feel like an afterthought. Still, with its humor and lively, cartoonish illustrations, this graphic novel will likely find its audience.
Absurdly funny. (Graphic science fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Feb. 17, 2026
ISBN: 9781454957683
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Union Square & Co.
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
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