There’s plenty of magic, healing, and love to enjoy on this roller-coaster ride.
A Chinese American family becomes entangled in magical mischief.
Eighth grader Winston Chu and his family are still processing the friendly fire death of his father who was serving in Iraq. On the eve of the third anniversary of losing his dad, Winston, along with trusted soccer mates Mav, Bijal, and Cassa, stumble across Mr. Pang’s Whimsies, a store of magical knickknacks in San Francisco’s Chinatown that Winston had never noticed before. Winston, armed with a pie, inadvertently helps Mr. Pang by scaring away some Hawaiian shirt–clad troublemakers, but he disappointingly ends up with just an old broom and dustpan as tokens of the shop owner’s gratitude. What Winston does not know is that these objects are possessed by the spirits of the cloud weaver and the cowherd, star-crossed lovers from Chinese folklore. Things only get more complicated when Winston’s younger sister, Coco, gets swapped with a changeling from the shop. The friends must figure out how to get her back using clues from Winston’s family’s beloved collection of traditional Chinese stories, Tales From the Middle Kingdom. Lee deftly crafts an adventure that strings together seemingly random clues only to have them fall satisfyingly into place in the end. Themes of friendship, grief, and family love are explored throughout. A few lingering questions hint at a sequel. Cassa reads White; Mav has some Senegalese ancestry, and Bijal’s name cues him as South Asian.
There’s plenty of magic, healing, and love to enjoy on this roller-coaster ride. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-368-07480-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Rick Riordan Presents/Disney
Review Posted Online: Nov. 28, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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