Improbabilities notwithstanding, anyone who enjoyed the first book will be delighted by this suspenseful series entry.
An erstwhile magician’s assistant and a renegade faerie princess investigate a steampunk circus in this fantasy follow-up to The Wingsnatchers (2017).
Felix Cassius Tiberius Carmer III and Grit (nee Grettifrida Lonewing), still reeling from their first adventure together, are traveling leisurely southward when they crash into Bell Daisimer, daredevil balloonist. Detecting a whiff of faerie magic around “Rinka Tinka’s Roving Wonder Show,” they soon become entangled in the aerial circus’s complicated—and deadly—mysteries. While the glamorous milieu is sadly underutilized and, despite a plethora of airships, the mechanical marvels are less than dazzling, Horwitz deftly grounds and expands her fictional world, diving deep into political intrigues among various faerie factions. The protagonists also gain depth and maturity: Carmer remains clever, kind, and conscientious, but he sheds some of his diffident awkwardness; Grit, although still rude and self-centered, begins to accept her responsibilities. Their antagonists are ruthless but, true to their own code, are hardly cartoon villains. The remaining characters are charming, if paper-thin; with the exception of Bell’s “ebony skin” they apparently default to white—and if the utter absence of observable racial bigotry in this alternate turn-of-the-century Virginia feels unlikely, it’s not much odder than a 13-year-old boy motoring about the country (seemingly) alone, conducting professional technical inquiries, without comment.
Improbabilities notwithstanding, anyone who enjoyed the first book will be delighted by this suspenseful series entry. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-61620-664-2
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense.
In the midst of political turmoil, how do you escape the only country that you’ve ever known and navigate a new life? Parallel stories of three different middle school–aged refugees—Josef from Nazi Germany in 1938, Isabel from 1994 Cuba, and Mahmoud from 2015 Aleppo—eventually intertwine for maximum impact.
Three countries, three time periods, three brave protagonists. Yet these three refugee odysseys have so much in common. Each traverses a landscape ruled by a dictator and must balance freedom, family, and responsibility. Each initially leaves by boat, struggles between visibility and invisibility, copes with repeated obstacles and heart-wrenching loss, and gains resilience in the process. Each third-person narrative offers an accessible look at migration under duress, in which the behavior of familiar adults changes unpredictably, strangers exploit the vulnerabilities of transients, and circumstances seem driven by random luck. Mahmoud eventually concludes that visibility is best: “See us….Hear us. Help us.” With this book, Gratz accomplishes a feat that is nothing short of brilliant, offering a skillfully wrought narrative laced with global and intergenerational reverberations that signal hope for the future. Excellent for older middle grade and above in classrooms, book groups, and/or communities looking to increase empathy for new and existing arrivals from afar.
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense. (maps, author’s note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: July 25, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-88083-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
PROFILES
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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