Pizazz may feel like she’s unique in her problems, but on paper she’s a dime a dozen.
Being a superpowered 9 ½-year-old isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
When you think superhero, you picture a costumed adventurer punching evildoers and saving the day. You picture a heroic grin and an endearing quip as our hero humbly suggests it’s just their duty, just before swooping off to avert some other far-off crisis. It sounds like it’d be great to be a superhero, but Pizazz knows better. This kid has had it up to here with dashing away from her friends and school whenever there’s a sign of trouble. She’s tired of saving the world while wearing an embarrassing, glittery cape. Hardest of all might be the constantly sunny attitude expected of her: Pizazz feels trapped by an image she never wanted in the first place. As Pizazz outlines her laundry list of complaints, readers may find their empathy curdling quickly. There are only so many smarmy wisecracks one can take without a balance of earnest chuckles or splashy art, and the book has neither. Flat characters and square authority figures dance to the narrative’s well-worn song. At its core, there’s little to set this novel apart from the many other “misunderstood middle grader with attitude” books that flood school book fairs. Pizazz and most of her family have paper-white skin; some secondary characters appear to be people of color. Book 2, Pizazz vs. the New Kid, publishes simultaneously.
Pizazz may feel like she’s unique in her problems, but on paper she’s a dime a dozen. (Fiction. 8-10)Pub Date: June 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-9243-1
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This fractured fairy tale features a hip contemporary voice but relies too heavily on relayed history. Opening with a line that captures both context and fabulously sardonic attitude—“Once upon a time, Jack wouldn’t have been caught dead in a princess rescue”—Riley quickly establishes his protagonists: Jack, pragmatic but mopey, waiting for any chance to rescue a princess, and May, sporting blue-streaked hair, a cell phone and a Punk Princess T-shirt, who has dropped in from another realm. Jack assumes that May’s a princess; May knows only that her grandmother was kidnapped. They set out to rescue grandma, picking up an elegant prince who annoys Jack by being competent. May’s voice is more often feistily modern (“Then you went and got eaten! What’s that about!?”) than stilted (she describes grandma as “[s]o full of life”), but she's positioned within the narrative mainly to be fought over and protected. Unfortunately, plot twists and revelations all derive their meaning from past events in Jack’s world, forcing the text to be so expository that emotional investment never quite catches up. (Fantasy. 8-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4169-9593-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Dec. 25, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2010
Adventures and misadventures, Old West style—but with dinos.
Young Josh needs to up his ride if he’s going to win the Trihorn settlement’s 100th-anniversary Founders’ Day race and meet his hero, Terrordactyl Bill.
Set on the Lost Plains, where ranchers tend to herds of iguanodons, and horses (if there were any) would be easy pickings for the local predators, this series kickoff pits a brash lad and sidekick and schoolmates Sam and Abi against not only the requisite bully, but such fiercer adversaries as attacking pterodactyls. Josh’s first challenge after eagerly entering the race is finding a faster, nimbler steed than his steady but old gallimimus, Plodder. Along comes Charge—an aptly named, if not-quite-fully-trained triceratops with speed, brains, and, it turns out, a streak of loyalty that saves Josh’s bacon both here and in a simultaneously publishing sequel, How To Rope a Giganotosaurus, which prominently features T. Rex’s much larger cousin. Dare adds a map, as well as spot illustrations of rural Western types (Josh and Abi are white, Sam has dark skin and tightly curled hair) astride toothy, brightly patterned dinos. In both adventures Josh weathers regular encounters with dinosaur dung, snot, and gas as well as threats to life and limb to show up the aforementioned bully and emerge a hero.
Adventures and misadventures, Old West style—but with dinos. (Fantasy. 8-10)Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4668-6
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
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