This short, promising series opener contains plenty to inspire young readers while they await Vol. 2: Avalanche! (author’s...
After a rogue wave overturns their whale-watching boat in Washington’s cold coastal waters, two preteens—unsure if their families survived—battle injury and hypothermia to reach dry land.
Only Travis, 11 and white, wears an immersion suit. With her wrist broken and only a lifejacket for protection, Marina, Latina, 12, and the tour operator’s daughter, knows they must conserve body heat and get out of the water, but she’s losing consciousness. Travis manages to get them ashore, which is no easy task for a less-than-fit kid from Ohio who’s given up gymnastics for computer gaming. On land, challenges only mount. With Marina barely breathing, Travis struggles to light a fire, then build a shelter at nightfall. Dawn brings the next issue: how to survive without food or water. There are inner demons to vanquish, too. When Marina spots a treetop nest containing a webcam, Travis must overcome a well-founded fear of heights to reach it. The author, a conservation officer for the province of Ontario, puts her considerable professional and recreational wilderness experiences to creative use. While the series framing device (a journalist interviews young survivors after they return to normal life) acts as a spoiler, the ordeals, thrillingly described, deliver plenty of suspense. Johnson doesn’t give her young heroes special help—no food cache is discovered; no bottled water floats ashore. Orban’s black-and-white illustrations help to break up the text and keep up the pace.
This short, promising series opener contains plenty to inspire young readers while they await Vol. 2: Avalanche! (author’s note, survival tips) (Adventure. 7-10)Pub Date: July 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-544-97010-6
Page Count: 112
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
Ironically, by choosing such a dramatic catalyst, the author weakens the adventure’s impact overall and leaves readers to...
A group of talking farm animals catches wind of the farm owner’s intention to burn the barn (with them in it) for insurance money and hatches a plan to flee.
Bond begins briskly—within the first 10 pages, barn cat Burdock has overheard Dewey Baxter’s nefarious plan, and by Page 17, all of the farm animals have been introduced and Burdock is sharing the terrifying news. Grady, Dewey’s (ever-so-slightly) more principled brother, refuses to go along, but instead of standing his ground, he simply disappears. This leaves the animals to fend for themselves. They do so by relying on their individual strengths and one another. Their talents and personalities match their species, bringing an element of realism to balance the fantasy elements. However, nothing can truly compensate for the bland horror of the premise. Not the growing sense of family among the animals, the serendipitous intervention of an unknown inhabitant of the barn, nor the convenient discovery of an alternate home. Meanwhile, Bond’s black-and-white drawings, justly compared to those of Garth Williams, amplify the sense of dissonance. Charming vignettes and single- and double-page illustrations create a pastoral world into which the threat of large-scale violence comes as a shock.
Ironically, by choosing such a dramatic catalyst, the author weakens the adventure’s impact overall and leaves readers to ponder the awkward coincidences that propel the plot. (Animal fantasy. 8-10)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-544-33217-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
Another epic outing in a graphic hybrid series that continues not just to push the envelope, but tear it to shreds.
Pranksters George and Harold face the deadliest challenge of their checkered careers: a supersmart, superstrong gym teacher.
With the avowed aim of enticing an audience of “grouchy old people” to the Waistband Warrior’s latest exploit, Pilkey promises “references to health care, gardening, Bob Evans restaurants, hard candies, FOX News, and gentle-yet-effective laxatives.” He delivers, too. But lest fans of the Hanes-clad hero fret, he also stirs in plenty of fart jokes, brain-melting puns, and Flip-O-Rama throwdowns. After a meteorite transforms Mr. Meaner into a mad genius (evil, of course, because “as everyone knows, most gym teachers are inherently evil”) and he concocts a brown gas that turns children into blindly obedient homework machines, George and Harold travel into the future to enlist aid from their presumably immune adult selves. Temporarily leaving mates and children (of diverse sexes, both) behind, Old George and Old Harold come to the rescue. But Meaner has a robot suit (of course he has a robot suit), and he not only beats down the oldsters, but is only fazed for a moment when Capt. Underpants himself comes to deliver a kick to the crotch. Fortunately, gym teachers, “like toddlers,” will put anything in their mouths—so an ingestion of soda pop and Mentos at last spells doom, or more accurately: “CHeffGoal-D’BLOOOM!”
Another epic outing in a graphic hybrid series that continues not just to push the envelope, but tear it to shreds. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-545-50492-8
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
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