Episodic but sure to delight those who appreciate the ick factor.
Trying to save their seedy amusement park, the Twits tackle a group of young orphans.
Setting the tone with an opening flood of liquid meat from a hot dog factory, this novelization of the 2025 animated movie The Twits spins an original plotline around gross bits and some even grosser characters drawn from Roald Dahl’s 1980 novel, with added elements from his other stories and current events. Mr. and Mrs. Twit are determined to recapture the family of magical, monkeylike Muggle-Wumps they kidnapped from Loompaland to power Twitlandia, the uncommonly dangerous tourist attraction they built in their backyard. They steal a local election with outrageous lies and seize the orphanage where the fugitives are sheltering. But intrepid 11-year-old orphan Beesha—who’s brown-skinned in the film but, like other cast members, minimally described in the book—has other ideas. Various narrow squeaks, punctuated by exploding buttocks, sucking on a toad’s toes, and like delights, culminate in a counter-prank that leaves the noxious neighbors from hell unharmed but at least temporarily at bay. Hay doesn’t succeed in pulling the patchy plot into even a semblance of coherence, but that doesn’t keep him from stuffing it with gross-out moments aplenty. Lessons about the costs of bad behavior may fall flat, though, since the Twits, awful as they are, seem almost admirable for their sheer resilience in the wake of repeated humiliations.
Episodic but sure to delight those who appreciate the ick factor. (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2025
ISBN: 9798217053162
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2025
Dizzyingly silly.
The famous superhero returns to fight another villain with all the trademark wit and humor the series is known for.
Despite the title, Captain Underpants is bizarrely absent from most of this adventure. His school-age companions, George and Harold, maintain most of the spotlight. The creative chums fool around with time travel and several wacky inventions before coming upon the evil Turbo Toilet 2000, making its return for vengeance after sitting out a few of the previous books. When the good Captain shows up to save the day, he brings with him dynamic action and wordplay that meet the series’ standards. The Captain Underpants saga maintains its charm even into this, the 11th volume. The epic is filled to the brim with sight gags, toilet humor, flip-o-ramas and anarchic glee. Holding all this nonsense together is the author’s good-natured sense of harmless fun. The humor is never gross or over-the-top, just loud and innocuous. Adults may roll their eyes here and there, but youngsters will eat this up just as quickly as they devoured every other Underpants episode.
Dizzyingly silly. (Humor. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-50490-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
A dramatic, educational, authentic whale of a tale.
After a tsunami devastates their habitat in the Salish Sea, a young orca and her brother embark on a remarkable adventure.
Vega’s matriarchal family expects her to become a hunter and wayfinder, with her younger brother, Deneb, protecting and supporting her. Invited to guide her family to their Gathering Place to hunt salmon, Vega’s underwater miscalculations endanger them all, and an embarrassed Vega questions whether she should be a wayfinder. When the baby sister she hoped would become her life companion is stillborn, a distraught Vega carries the baby away to a special resting place, shocking her grieving family. Dispatched to find his missing sister, Deneb locates Vega in the midst of a terrible tsunami. To escape the waters polluted by shattered boats, Vega leads Deneb into unfamiliar open sea. Alone and hungry, the young siblings encounter a spectacular giant whale and travel briefly with shark-hunting orcas. Trusting her instincts and gaining emotional strength from contemplating the vastness of the sky, Vega knows she must lead her brother home and help save her surviving family. In alternating first-person voices, Vega and Deneb tell their harrowing story, engaging young readers while educating them about the marine ecosystem. Realistic black-and-white illustrations enhance the maritime setting.
A dramatic, educational, authentic whale of a tale. (maps, wildlife facts, tribes of the Salish Sea watershed, environmental and geographical information, how to help orcas, author’s note, artist’s note, resources) (Animal fiction. 8-10)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-299592-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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