An imaginative portal adventure hampered by a muddled plot.
Magical realms and wild exploits entangle a girl in this debut children’s fantasy novel.
The child of an English father and a Malaysian mother, 9-year-old Ashley Sprinkler is happy her family is moving to Kuala Lumpur to live with her maternal grandmother. Yet several months later, her father—the genius inventor Professor Sprinkler—dies suddenly. Ashley inherits his magical/scientific artifacts, giving her a chance to rescue Billy, the neighbor’s rabbit, who became trapped in another dimension. But instead of Billy, Ashley accidentally frees a wizard, Speed Twister, who forcibly transports her (and Bob, the neighbor’s cat) to his Maze Realm. Though they manage to escape, their magical gateway takes them to the Enchanted Gardens Realm, where they meet Prince Jeff, 15, a talented inventor. His kingdom is facing attack from the Three Weird Sisters of the Desperate Valley realm. The sisters killed his parents and have now imprisoned Billy’s kidnappers, Valerie, 10, and her witch mum, who traveled to Desperate Valley to steal magical items. Complicated cross-realm travels through magical portals, battles, and adventures ensue, with Ashley winning allies and learning more about the many powers inherent in her father’s inventions. In this innovative tale, Idid employs the popular portal fantasy motif, the multiple realms giving the author lots of room to explore characters, comical mishaps, and even tragedy. It’s a creative mix but confusingly hard to follow as the plot jumps from one event to another with little sense of an overall story arc. For example, Ashley’s sudden transport to and from an enchanted forest doesn’t advance the plot or develop her character. Techno-magical items aren’t well thought out. It’s more satisfying for readers to learn artifacts’ powers before they’re wielded, but here, their (often unrelated) effects simply appear as needed.
An imaginative portal adventure hampered by a muddled plot.Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2021
ISBN: 979-8535333434
Page Count: 249
Publisher: Independently Published
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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