A sequence of adventures details a small boy’s encounters with a Bigfoot with smelly feet, a mummy named King Butt, pirates searching for a killer squid, a booger-man under his bed and a ghost guarding buried treasure on Monkey Island. Third graders will appreciate the short, relatively easy-to-read chapters, lively typesetting and Shreve’s heavily inked black-and-white drawings on every page. The author misses no opportunity to indulge in taboo humor: Bigfoot gets a splinter in his “hiney;” Benny and his uncle rewrap the mummy in toilet paper; the boy eats snakes and rats; his dog vanquishes the under-the-bed monster with a sauerkraut fart. What might have worked well as a series of exaggerated bedtime stories seems overdone in print, however, and lacks the manic visual energy of such masters as Dav Pilkey and newcomer Eric Wight. Although clearly aimed at Captain Underpants fans, this misses the target. (Fiction. 7-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-7614-5575-2
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
Piles of excitement.
Gifted young gamers team up to thwart an interstellar prankster’s scheme to blast humanity into oblivion with toxic gas from Uranus, the smelliest planet anywhere.
Uh-oh…it seems that evil Baron Buttz is planning something involving Poopious Maximus, a giant mound of “fake dog doody,” and a Mega Whopper Whoopee Cushion. Down swoops Newton Bean, commander of the Superpixel Ninja Officer Tweens of Space, to recruit Rusty Crumb, a human gamer with awesomely overdeveloped “thumbceps,” and his fierce little sister, Kitty, to help get to the bottom of what’s going on. The stage is set for boss battles and actual ones, with the two gamers firing up their Super Game Dude consoles to tackle swarming hordes of Buttz bots and the sneering Prince of Pranks in both real and cyber space. Distinguishing between the two realms by using smooth or pixelated lines (but drawing them in much the same way), Mansch packs his cartoon panels with real and virtual space action and rapid patter on the way to a fart of interplanetary proportions that blasts the scheming schemer to a proper comeuppance—or, as one minion gleefully puts it, “Buttz is on Uranus! Hahaha!” Bean has light brown skin; his nemesis and the rest of the button-eyed human cast present as white.
Piles of excitement. (Graphic science fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: May 21, 2024
ISBN: 9781513141527
Page Count: 224
Publisher: West Margin Press
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
Twins Kevin and Joules Rockman are happy they’re spending a week at Camp Whatsitooya on the shores of Lake Whatsosmelly, because it means they don’t have to accompany their parents to the International SPAMathon. Their parents would (and do) put the barely edible meat-like substance in everything. The camp’s pretty lame, but craft-crazed Ms. Jones, her two batty counselors and a passel of oddball campers become the least of the twins’ worries when people start vanishing and brain-controlling monster-bunnies attack. Thank goodness Kevin’s studied survival tactics in awful horror movies and Joules is proficient with pointed sticks. With the help of clueless Nelson and a secret ingredient you can probably guess, the Rockman twins attempt to save the world from slavering, fanged, man- (and candy-) eating fluffy bunnies. Beaty’s tale of high silliness is sure to please, and it’s dotted with Santat’s mini-comics and spot illustrations, which move the story along. If at times the reach for a larff is a bit of a stretch, it’s all in fun. The hint at a possible sequel will have humorous-adventure lovers asking. (Adventure. 7-10)
Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-8109-8416-5
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Dec. 30, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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