This winsome middle-grade adventure blends good-natured humor and diverting action.
A seventh grader fights to protect her swamp home from a ruthless government in Cross’ middle-grade SF adventure, the first in a series.
Bad Luck Princess lives in Zone #13, a harsh, radioactive place that’s hazardous to non-Zonites. Blip (her preferred nickname) just wants to get through another school day, but mysterious notes proposing a meetup in the Swamp of Doom understandably unnerve her. It only gets worse: At her stilt-mansion home, another note awaits, and Aunt Emogen, her only family, is missing. With grit and galoshes, Blip traverses the Swamp of Doom, which teems with potentially deadly creatures. She soon uncovers a sinister plot: The Galactic Government is looking to shut down Zone #13 and drain the swamp. This place may incessantly reek with assorted odors, and the rain may give its grass a “snot-like texture,” but Zone #13 is a state free of government rule. Vowing to protect her home, Blip, with help from friends Ginger, Jimbo, and Raymond, searches for a lost sword that may be able to stop the government’s plan. Cross delivers a fun tale infused with rib-tickling turns. Blip’s narration can be amusingly dry; she complains about her consistently bad luck but she also seems used to it. Many of the story’s bizarre details are comical, from a skull phone that shriek-rings to a dust bunny under the couch that waves at Blip. At the same time, truly scary creatures populate the swamp, like huge spitting spiders and a talking “alligark” (an alligator-shark hybrid), though some of these swamp dwellers are nicer than they initially appear. This opening installment will leave much for readers to look forward to, like additional background on Blip’s parents (who inexplicably vanished) and further scenes with her cat Percival, who seemingly has no problem taking care of unwanted swamp rats. Zombie’s bold, comic book–style artwork adds vivid detail to individual characters, though there are sadly few images of the swampy backdrop.
This winsome middle-grade adventure blends good-natured humor and diverting action.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781957656748
Page Count: 110
Publisher: Monarch Educational Services, L.L.C.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 29, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.
In Florence’s middle-grade fantasy novel, a young girl’s heart is tested in the face of an evil, spreading Darkness.
Eleven-year-old Lydia, “freckle-cheeked and round-eyed, with hair the color of pine bark and fair skin,” is struggling with the knowledge that she has reached the age to apprentice as an herbalist. Lydia is reluctant to leave her beloved, magical Mulberry Glen and her cozy Housetree in the woods—she’ll miss Garder, the Glen’s respected philosopher; her fairy guardian Pit; her human friend Livy; and even the mischievous part-elf, part-imp, part-human twins Zale and Zamilla. But the twins go missing after hearing of a soul-sapping Darkness that has swallowed a forest and is creeping into minds and engulfing entire towns. They have secretly left to find a rare fruit that, it is said, will stop the Darkness if thrown into the heart of the mountain that rises out of the lethal forest. Lydia follows, determined to find the twins before they, too, fall victim to the Darkness. During her journey, accompanied by new friends, she gradually realizes that she herself has a dangerous role to play in the quest to stop the Darkness. In this well-crafted fantasy, Florence skillfully equates the physical manifestation of Darkness with the feelings of insecurity and powerlessness that Lydia first struggles with when thinking of leaving the Glen. Such negative thoughts grow more intrusive the closer she and her friends come to the Darkness—and to Lydia’s ultimate, powerfully rendered test of character, which leads to a satisfyingly realistic, not quite happily-ever-after ending. Highlights include a delightfully haunting, reality-shifting library and a deft sprinkling of Latin throughout the text; Pit’s pet name for Lydia is mea flosculus (“my little flower”). Fine-lined ink drawings introducing each chapter add a pleasing visual element to this well-grounded fairy tale.
An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781956393095
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Waxwing Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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