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PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS

WRATH OF THE TRIPLE GODDESS

From the Senior Year Adventures series , Vol. 2

A superlative volume that combines strong characterization with thrilling action.

With graduation on the horizon, Percy faces new challenges in this second series entry.

It’s October, a month for relishing the crisp air, changing leaves, and “pumpkin-spice burritos,” when high school senior Percy is summoned to the principal’s office to meet his aunt—a mysterious request for someone who doesn’t have an aunt (at least, “not on the human side” of his family). The visitor turns out to be Hecate, the triple goddess of magic, crossroads, and necromancy. She insists that Percy petsit her hellhound and polecat while she’s off enjoying Halloween festivities. Still needing two letters of recommendation if he’s to join girlfriend Annabeth at New Rome University, Percy can’t refuse. As always, Annabeth and Grover are happy to assist, and thus begins an autumnal adventure for the ages. Monstrous mayhem abounds, and characters from past adventures resurface. The localized focus of the action within New York City offers readers an insider’s tour of locales such as Gramercy Park and the historically Greek enclave of Astoria. Reducing the geographical scale of the quests also allows Riordan to focus on Percy’s maturation and introspection. This is arguably the most feminist novel of this universe: Percy reckons with several prominent women from ancient myth whose lives were ruined by men. One of the novel’s most poignant vignettes involves Percy vicariously experiencing the anguish of the destruction of Troy through the psyche of one of its few female survivors.

A superlative volume that combines strong characterization with thrilling action. (Fantasy. 9-14)

Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2024

ISBN: 9781368107631

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2024

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CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS AND THE TERRIFYING RETURN OF TIPPY TINKLETROUSERS

From the Captain Underpants series , Vol. 9

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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THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL

From the School for Good and Evil series , Vol. 1

Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.

Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.

Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and  her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).

Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)

Pub Date: May 14, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2

Page Count: 496

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013

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