Earnest and adventuresome, despite some language issues and a paper-thin villain.
Hints that some of her nearly extinct mermaid relatives might still survive in Iceland send Alea and friends sailing off aboard the Crucis—straight into the clutches of an archnemesis.
This third volume in a translated series from Germany takes the nautical Alpha Cru, who earn money through busking, through a succession of crises, including rescuing a whale caught in a discarded net and navigating the fallout after moody, overprotective Lennox sees Alea being kissed by bandmate Tess. But the young musicians temporarily put personal issues on hold when they’re captured by a bad guy who explains at length his evildoing, which includes both the mass killing of mer-people and, as an unrepentant Sludger (“what the merworld called criminals who dumped in the ocean”), polluting the world’s waters. Fortunately, both the land and the oceans are thickly populated with sprites, nixies, and other magical creatures who always respond to Alea’s calls for help, so she escapes to continue her quest to reunite her people in fulfillment of the requisite prophecy. The translation of the nautical terminology is sketchy in spots, and the young people’s speech sometimes feels oddly formal (as when a 9-year-old asks, “Are they just decoration, or does their flittering and glittering about have a purpose?”). The cast largely reads white. Tess, who’s cued Black and wears her hair in locs, is cringingly described by a sprite as having “funny, twisted hair.”
Earnest and adventuresome, despite some language issues and a paper-thin villain. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9781646900510
Page Count: 445
Publisher: Arctis Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Some readers may feel that the resolution comes a mite too easily, but most will enjoy the journey and be pleased when...
Two sisters make an unauthorized expedition to their former hometown and in the process bring together the two parts of their divided family.
Dooley packs plenty of emotion into this eventful road trip, which takes place over the course of less than 24 hours. Twelve-year-old Ophelia, nicknamed Fella, and her 16-year-old sister, Zoey Grace, aka Zany, are the daughters of a lesbian couple, Shannon and Lacy, who could not legally marry. The two white girls squabble and share memories as they travel from West Virginia to Asheville, North Carolina, where Zany is determined to scatter Mama Lacy’s ashes in accordance with her wishes. The year is 2004, before the Supreme Court decision on gay marriage, and the girls have been separated by hostile, antediluvian custodial laws. Fella’s present-tense narration paints pictures not just of the difficulties they face on the trip (a snowstorm, car trouble, and an unlikely thief among them), but also of their lives before Mama Lacy’s illness and of the ways that things have changed since then. Breathless and engaging, Fella’s distinctive voice is convincingly childlike. The conversations she has with her sister, as well as her insights about their relationship, likewise ring true. While the girls face serious issues, amusing details and the caring adults in their lives keep the tone relatively light.
Some readers may feel that the resolution comes a mite too easily, but most will enjoy the journey and be pleased when Fella’s family figures out how to come together in a new way . (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-16504-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 31, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
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