A loonily intellectual alternative to that wimpy kid.
If Inspector Clouseau were in grade school, he’d be Timmy Failure.
Timmy has a secret admirer. He knows this, as he’s received a note, covered in little hearts, that says, “You have a secret admirer!” His friends and relatives assume it’s from Molly Moskins, since she follows him around saying, “Doesn’t my Timmykins look handsomeful?”—and since another love note is signed, “LOVE MM (These are my initials).” Timmy assumes, with his typical logic, that the hearts are a coded death threat. “Think,” he says to his great-aunt. “The heart is what keeps you alive.” He has reason to be suspicious. He has very few admirers, partly because he keeps accusing his friends of crimes—especially Molly Moskins. In spite of that, they remain remarkably faithful and even help him solve the central mystery of the book, which loosely involves a detective contest at his school. Readers who found Timmy hard to take in his first book won’t like him—or the terrible puns—any better here. (One chapter is titled “The Lying, the Watch, and the Poor Globe.”) But his many fans will speed through the pages, and they’ll love Pastis’ illustrations, which feature an adorable polar bear shaped like a bowling pin. They may even adopt Timmy’s motto: “When you lose hope, find it.”
A loonily intellectual alternative to that wimpy kid. (Comic mystery. 8-12)Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6051-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
For summer reading or dreaming of summer, this satisfying sequel can be a good starting point for middle-grade readers.
Rising sixth-graders Hunter and Zack make the most of the last four days of their summer vacation, attempting to stave off a kidnapping, performing rescues and welcoming yet another sibling.
Continuing the TV-fueled adventures begun at the start of their summer and chronicled in Hunter Moran Saves the Universe (2012), the twins leave a surprising trail of destruction at summer’s end. They trample their father’s newly seeded lawn and try to cover the damage with an enormous rock they claim is a coyote’s gravestone. They take lumber and nails intended for a workroom to build a watchtower high in a tree. They break into basements, and Hunter falls out a second-story window. They survive near-drowning in the pond in Werewolf Woods. As reported by Hunter in a breathless first-person, present-tense narration, the chaos in the Moran household sometimes seems a little far-fetched, but it can be excused by the arrival of K.G., the new baby and seventh child (whose real name is not “Killer Godzilla”). Throughout the book, the boys continue to feed and replenish the worm farm they’ve established in a kitchen-cabinet drawer, a running joke that seems likely to offer possibilities for more sequels.
For summer reading or dreaming of summer, this satisfying sequel can be a good starting point for middle-grade readers. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2859-5
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2013
The result is a series opener that falls frustratingly short of its potential; here’s hoping subsequent volumes (the first...
A series opener introduces a crime-fighting preteen escapologist.
Max Flash is a first-class escape artist and master illusionist who spends his free time bound in chains trying to escape from tanks of water. But when Max discovers that his parents are actually undercover agents for a secret organization known as the Department for Extraordinary Activity, life at the Flash household becomes even more interesting. In this kickoff novel, a programmer from the hottest gaming company in the world accidentally creates a portal between the real and Virtual worlds, and Max is called on by the DFEA to use his unique skill set to travel to the Virtual world and close the portal so that rogue characters can’t travel back and forth between worlds and wreak havoc. All of the ingredients are there—the premise is intriguing, there’s the promise of fast-paced action, and a Houdini-esque kid protagonist has the potential to be a winning character—but unfortunately, the book fails to ever truly bring Max or his story to life. Even the artwork is disappointingly one-dimensional. The story is told in the third person by a decidedly adult narrator, and Max is never allowed to find his own voice and connect on an emotional level with readers.
The result is a series opener that falls frustratingly short of its potential; here’s hoping subsequent volumes (the first six are publishing simultaneously) improve. (Adventure. 9-12)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4677-1465-5
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Darby Creek
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
