A densely plotted, fast-moving, thematically rich tale set at the intersection of ability and disability.
A teen enters a challenging, multiday dog sled race to raise awareness of the incurable disease that’s blinded her sister and now claims her own sight.
To retain her independence, McKenna, 14, has hidden her deteriorating vision from her family, dropped extracurricular activities, and withdrawn from friends. Only 8-year-old Emma knows that McKenna, too, inherited Stargardt disease, a juvenile form of macular degeneration. (Both retain some peripheral vision.) Observing how parental conflicts, exacerbated by their mother’s overprotectiveness, have undermined Emma’s progress toward self-reliance, McKenna’s avoided disclosing her disability. She’s certain the knowledge would devastate her parents, but hiding vision loss is a risky strategy—especially on demanding, unfamiliar terrain, the route Canadian couriers once used to deliver mail by dog sled. An experienced musher—her (presumed white) Michigan family raises and trains sled dogs—McKenna hopes her skills can compensate. As the weather deteriorates, sighted competitors (the daughter of a famous musher and the descendent of a dog sled courier) also make dangerous mistakes. McKenna’s dread of losing her autonomy while her teen peers move toward independent adulthood resonates. Giving and accepting help, she confronts her own beliefs and fears about disability. Johnson’s mushing expertise pays off in a suspenseful plot laden with convincing details. The lively, crowded, chaotic world of dogs and mushers is memorably complemented by the silent, icy wilderness they race through.
A densely plotted, fast-moving, thematically rich tale set at the intersection of ability and disability. (author’s note) (Adventure. 10-14)Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-55159-7
Page Count: 240
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019
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
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish.
The dreary prospect of spending a lifetime making caskets instead of wonderful inventions prompts a young orphan to snatch up his little sister and flee. Where? To the circus, of course.
Fortunately or otherwise, John and 6-year-old Page join up with Boz—sometime human cannonball for the seedy Wandering Wayfarers and a “vertically challenged” trickster with a fantastic gift for sowing chaos. Alas, the budding engineer barely has time to settle in to begin work on an experimental circus wagon powered by chicken poop and dubbed (with questionable forethought) the Autopsy. The hot pursuit of malign and indomitable Great-Aunt Beauregard, the Coggins’ only living relative, forces all three to leave the troupe for further flights and misadventures. Teele spins her adventure around a sturdy protagonist whose love for his little sister is matched only by his fierce desire for something better in life for them both and tucks in an outstanding supporting cast featuring several notably strong-minded, independent women (Page, whose glare “would kill spiders dead,” not least among them). Better yet, in Boz she has created a scene-stealing force of nature, a free spirit who’s never happier than when he’s stirring up mischief. A climactic clutch culminating in a magnificently destructive display of fireworks leaves the Coggin sibs well-positioned for bright futures. (Illustrations not seen.)
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish. (Adventure. 11-13)Pub Date: April 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234510-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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