Start with the first (because it’s so much fun) and finish anticipating the next.
Last of the Legend Hunters, Finn may be doomed to destroy two worlds—or just to wear a kitty T-shirt for eternity.
Still 11 months from his 13th birthday and the ceremony that will make him a full Legend Hunter, Finn and his best friend, Emmie, both white, are determined to rescue Hugo, Finn’s dad and the actual last Legend Hunter (for now). He’s trapped on the Infested Side, where the monstrous Legends the Hunters hunt plot to invade the Blighted Village of Darkmouth and the rest of our world. To do that they have to find the map Hugo spoke of just before pushing his son through a closing gateway back to the relative safety of Darkmouth. Hard to do in a house filled with maps and with an Assessor from the Council of Twelve, directors of Legend Hunters and Half-Hunters, peering over their shoulders. Luck (most of it bad) is on their side…but time’s not (they have 48 hours to get Hugo back). When they do find a way to the Infested Side, things get a bit explode-y. Hegarty picks up the tale of the reluctant hero (somewhat less reluctant than in series opener The Legends Begin, 2015) where he left off. Action lags a mite in the middle, but this well-imagined and often quite funny Irish import is a great antidote to boilerplate multivolume series that seem to retell the same tale over and over.
Start with the first (because it’s so much fun) and finish anticipating the next. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: May 3, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-231132-0
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sympathetic, compelling introduction to wolves from the perspective of one wolf and his memorable journey.
Separated from his pack, Swift, a young wolf, embarks on a perilous search for a new home.
Swift’s mother impresses on him early that his “pack belongs to the mountains and the mountains belong to the pack.” His father teaches him to hunt elk, avoid skunks and porcupines, revere the life that gives them life, and “carry on” when their pack is devastated in an attack by enemy wolves. Alone and grieving, Swift reluctantly leaves his mountain home. Crossing into unfamiliar territory, he’s injured and nearly dies, but the need to run, hunt, and live drives him on. Following a routine of “walk-trot-eat-rest,” Swift traverses prairies, canyons, and deserts, encountering men with rifles, hunger, thirst, highways, wild horses, a cougar, and a forest fire. Never imagining the “world could be so big or that I could be so alone in it,” Swift renames himself Wander as he reaches new mountains and finds a new home. Rife with details of the myriad scents, sounds, tastes, touches, and sights in Swift/Wander’s primal existence, the immediacy of his intimate, first-person, present-tense narration proves deeply moving, especially his longing for companionship. Realistic black-and-white illustrations trace key events in this unique survival story, and extensive backmatter fills in further factual information about wolves and their habitat.
A sympathetic, compelling introduction to wolves from the perspective of one wolf and his memorable journey. (additional resources, map) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-289593-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
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