A chuckle-inducing, entirely worthy stand-alone follow-up to the terrific The Princess in Black (2014).
Princess Magnolia’s perfect birthday party’s threatened by constant monster alarms, summoning her secret identity again and again.
Prim, proper Princess Magnolia is all decked out in her pink finery, awaiting the arrival of a dozen ethnically diverse fellow-princess party guests for her birthday when her monster-alarm ring goes off. She changes attire and personas, becoming the heroic Princess in Black. Working swiftly, she saves a goat from a hungry monster and gets back to her palace in time to welcome her guests. But just when she thinks she’s in the clear and ready to open her presents, off goes her monster-alarm ring again! This pattern—Magnolia is just about to open presents when her alarm goes off, she comes up with a distraction for the princesses, defeats a monster, and returns just in time—continues through the book. It’s enhanced by visual gags, such as Magnolia’s increasingly flustered appearance, and hilarious depictions of the various ways monsters try to eat goats, from between giant pieces of bread to in a giant ice cream cone. A side character, the fittingly named Princess Sneezewort, frequently comes close to discovering Magnolia’s secret. In the end, Magnolia can’t take the constant interruptions anymore, yelling at a monster that it’s her birthday—the monster, abashed, ends up helping her in one last distraction for the other princesses.
A chuckle-inducing, entirely worthy stand-alone follow-up to the terrific The Princess in Black (2014). (Fantasy. 5-7)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6511-1
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
Fans will be glad Kung Pow has at least two more adventures on the way.
Fowladelphia is under attack by Dr. Screech. Can Kung Pow Chicken save the day?
Gordon Blue may appear to be an average, ordinary second-grade chicken, but not long ago, he and his brother, Benedict, fell into a vat of toxic sludge in their uncle’s lab and emerged with superchicken powers. Gordon and Benny now have secret superidentities: Kung Pow Chicken and Egg Drop. In series opener Let’s Get Cracking (2014), they put Granny Goosebumps away for her evil plot to make money off of featherless chickens. Now, they have to keep their secret identities secret (especially from their mom), and nosy reporter Sam Snood is trying to expose them. When opera singer Honey Comb is chicken-napped by Dr. Screech during a performance, Kung Pow and Egg Drop crack into action. Dr. Screech gets away. Unfortunately, Sam Snood snaps some pictures and insinuates that Kung Pow is in cahoots with Dr. Screech! The boys have to enlist Uncle Quack’s help to hunt down the nefarious evildoer. Can they save the opera and Fowladelphia and clear their names? Marko’s second of four Kung Pow Chicken high-interest, fast reads for the just-ready-for-chapters reader continues Gordon’s adventures nicely, with plenty of punny action in the colorful mix of comic panels and short paragraphs of text.
Fans will be glad Kung Pow has at least two more adventures on the way. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 5-7)Pub Date: March 25, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-61064-3
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Branches/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 30, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Presented in a mix of sequential panels and full-spread views, this easy-to-follow debut tale is rich in both drama and...
In this wordless odyssey, a postprandial nighttime outing turns particularly adventurous for two animal buddies.
With his mouse friend in the front basket, a frog's bike ride down a moonlit country road leads to startling encounters with a fierce-looking but friendly cockatrice, a computer gamer that looks like a bat crossed with a human and, just off a nearby beach, a menacing giant white crab. These creatures are only representative, though, of the many exotic and fantasy animals that Furie strews about each grainy-surfaced scene as he leads his two explorers past open woods, into twisting tunnels underground and through a deserted town decorated with gargoyles on the way to the sea. Surfing back to shore atop a pair of dolphins, the frog and mouse conclude their journey by climbing to a headland to watch a bright sunrise. A foldout poster of the cast (and cockatrice) serves as dust jacket.
Presented in a mix of sequential panels and full-spread views, this easy-to-follow debut tale is rich in both drama and sights that are less dangerous-looking than delightfully strange. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-936365-56-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: McSweeney's McMullens
Review Posted Online: July 2, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
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