High nonsense that almost lives up to its potential—but not quite
The day before Fred’s 13th birthday, she enters a magical world on an adventure that pays homage to classic children’s fantasy.
Fred and her mother have moved four times in six years, and Fred is frankly sick and tired of it. Angry at her mom though she may be, however, when Fred sees her mother step into an enormous paper lantern and vanish, she still plunges to the rescue. So it is that this young white girl finds herself locked in a dungeon with an elephant called Downer, in a land where much is illegal under “THE ESSENTIAL AND VERY GOOD AND NO ONE CAN DISAGREE WITH RAT RULE 79”: no keeping time, no getting older or wiser, and absolutely no birthday parties. Also no peanut butter. Downer wants to rescue the Rat Queen, Fred wants to rescue her mother, and a mongoose named Gogo needs to earn money to take care of her 17 children. The Land of Impossibility (depicted incompletely on a “topo-illogical” map) is a metaphor-heavy dreamscape evocative of The Phantom Tollbooth, while its magical animals speak with a combination of pedantry and nonsense paralleling that found in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Two-color illustrations similarly evoke historical styles. Snarky cleverness and famous paradoxes charm, but they are weakened by too-quick resolutions to both major and minor plot threads. Troublingly, a character’s depression is treated as a matter of personal choice.
High nonsense that almost lives up to its potential—but not quite . (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-63206-099-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Restless Books
Review Posted Online: May 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
Rote of plot and themes but with a (human) cast that does address a definite lack in the largely lily-white throngs of...
Four African-American fourth-graders have to lay aside their quarrels to save the Earth from an invasion of icy zombies.
Storywise, Bass doesn’t try for anything complicated or, for that matter, particularly logical. Having dropped a very important ring in the halls of Thurgood Cleavon Wilson Elementary, giant ice king Zenon threatens nerdy narrator Bakari Katari Johnson with a planetary invasion to get it back. Bakari is mystified until he spots the ring on the finger of classmate Keisha, mouthy mouthpiece for smug all-star athlete/teachers’ pet Tariq. It all sets off a round of squabbles and hall and lunchroom fracases with shambling zombie minions, a visit to Zenon’s icy dimension, and finally a bit of magic using the ring and a special marble that Bakari just happens to have from his granddad to close the gates to the Zombie Zone forever. Along with Bakari’s chubby best friend, Wardell, the young folk go from enemies to allies by the end. Craft tucks in lots of fluidly drawn scenes featuring purse-lipped students with oversize heads, jagged-edged attackers and the aforementioned ring in action.
Rote of plot and themes but with a (human) cast that does address a definite lack in the largely lily-white throngs of middle-grade fantasies. (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-13210-7
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
Pure melodrama with stereotypical villains in a circus setting; the appeal of talking animals with dabs of humor from the...
Years ago, stories of boys running away from home to join the circus were popular. This tale turns tail as an indentured boy and “misfit” animals try to run away from the circus.
The title sets up the plot, so readers know what will eventually happen. The misfits are Bertie, 11; Smalls, a long-tongued honey bear; Rigby, a moplike white Komondor dog; Tilda, a white Angora rabbit; and Wombat, a hairy-nosed wombat who’s in love with Tilda. They were acquired by hook and crook by Bertie’s villainous Uncle Claude, the epitome of mean, who gulps cocoa by the urn-full, abuses all of the animals and wants to sell the circus. His two right-hand but wrong-headed men, twins Loyd and Lloyd, cower at every command. There’s even romance, as Bertie is smitten by Susan, who performs a cruelly hand-blistering rope act. Each animal has a distinct personality, and they talk to one another but not to the humans. Even though the “lifer” animals (elephant, lions, monkey, zebra) resent them when the misfits begin to perform, they aid in the fiery finale and escape.
Pure melodrama with stereotypical villains in a circus setting; the appeal of talking animals with dabs of humor from the twin twits make for a good old-fashioned story. (Animal fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-59514-588-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2012
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