Lightweight and likable.
An indoor-loving wizard cat must return a library book.
Wizkit, a charmingly triangular feline cyclops with a taste for carbs, lives with Teacher Magus, a long-haired dog who suggests that the cat not use magic for everything and that she occasionally leave the house. Magus assigns Wizkit the task of returning an overdue library book. Book is a silly, friendly, sentient volume with limbs and, as Wizkit quickly discovers, completely blank pages that transport the duo into new adventures. First, they encounter a dragon stranded in a dry riverbed and must help it by stopping a frog who has dammed up the river and created a pool, where they charge fish for admission. Then, in a less compelling part of the adventure, they assist some mice, who freeze up when exposed to light, in return for a magical lantern. Finally, they encounter a three-headed bird, bickering triplets who are having trouble working together to build a hot air balloon. Wizkit, whose cynical edges have been gradually worn away by her companion’s enthusiasm, and Book are able to help the triplets and, as thanks, get a ride in the flying machine to the library. Though Wizkit’s growth is lovely, the narrative is at times didactic, with characters delivering heavy-handed statements about trying new things and learning from others. Still, this graphic novel uses colorful, legible cartoons to show off the fantastical, silly world, and the text is generally short and punchy, ideal for newly independent readers.
Lightweight and likable. (behind the scenes art development) (Graphic novel. 7-10)Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781665900836
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
Alien Spaceheadz approach their goal of recruiting 3.14 million + one Earthling SPHDZ…can they save Earth!?
Fifth grader Michael K. and his human friends Venus and TJ have done a whizbang job of helping advertisement-spewing, oddball aliens Bob, Jennifer and Major Fluffy (their leader and hamster) recruit. The SPHDZ counter falls only a bit short, so Bob and Jennifer decide to ask Santa Claus for the final SPHDZ needed to save the Earth from being turned off. Little do they know, the Santa they’re waiting in line to see is none other than Agent Umber of the Anti-Alien Agency! Michael K. & co. avert disaster, and the SPHDZ Counter hits its goal…then starts counting backwards! Evil Aliens are stealing the earthlings’ Brainwave (the sum of the collected SPHDZ) for their own nefarious ends! Feeling betrayed, Michael K. gives up. Meanwhile, Mom K. and Dad K.’s secret lives (ZIA Agent and Secret Ad man) are on a collision course. Can Spaceheadz with unlikely allies get Michael K. back on board and save the cosmos? Scieszka and Prigmore deliver the most madcap installment yet in their uber-illustrated series. Surprise villains (foreshadowed in previous volumes)! Surprise interstellar-parking-lot plans! Surprise doughnut upchuck! Nonfiction interludes on networks, group intelligence and symbiosis—not to mention the goofy websites—add to the fun.
Fans will be in heaven, especially at the certainty of further installments. (Humorous science fiction. 7-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4169-7955-5
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Santa Claus hates you and wants you to die. 364 days a year, he’s a tyrant who forces children to fight to the death in an...
It’s surprising that a book with zombies and talking celery isn’t quite goofy enough to work.
Santa Claus hates you and wants you to die. 364 days a year, he’s a tyrant who forces children to fight to the death in an enormous coliseum. Once a year, on Christmas Eve, he travels across the dimensions to Earth, where his entire personality transforms, and he becomes a jolly gift giver with a bag stuffed with candy canes. Pilot and Huxley have the bad luck to meet him on December 23rd. To get home on his world-hopping sleigh, they’ll need to defeat Bruto the giant elf and Rudolph, who’s armed with a rocket launcher. Luckily, Huxley has a bowl of noodles. All of this is very silly. It’s the Simpsons’ fault it doesn’t work. Kids who’ve grown up on Captain Underpants and Shrek and Family Guy will recognize the formula: Sarcastic comment, self-referential joke, ridiculous occurrence that our heroes take perfectly in stride. In spite of the familiar pacing, some of the jokes are right on target. PILOT: “But isn’t Limbo supposed to be like an empty, blank place where lost souls roam forever?” TALKING STRAWBERRY: “…It seemed like a waste of good real estate, so we all moved in.”Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-545-26845-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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