An energetic romp through a young boy’s comedic quest and a warmly told tale of youth and family.
Chaos ensues when a young boy believes he’s uncovered a loophole that entitles him to thousands of doughnuts for pennies on the dollar in Thomas Tosi’s middle-grade book.
Personal space and possessions can be difficult to find in a large family, and New Hampshire fifth grader Abe Mitchell sometimes finds the situation stifling. He just wants something that he can truly call his own, and one day, he thinks he’s found just the thing when his father wins a coupon for a free doughnut from the local Sweetly Crisp doughnut shop. Abe believes that because the coupon claims its cash equivalent is 1/20 of a cent, then he should be able to use it—along with $3, which he received from his younger sister Peg—to buy a grand total of 6,000 doughnuts. His attempt to cash in on his scheme results in a food fight, perhaps started by his crush Marlene, that results in unexpected fame and a comically tense standoff with Marlene’s father, the grumpy owner of the doughnut shop. Determined to claim his thousands of doughnuts, Abe later sets his sights on the Judge Sally Rules show to get justice, but things may not pan out the way he wants. Throughout the narrative, Thomas Tosi weaves in comic shenanigans involving other members of Abe’s large family; for example, his twin older brothers attempt to cash in on a viral video of their older cousin, a would-be lawyer who speaks with a Southern twang, which shows her being hit by a doughnut during the food fight. In a side plot, Tosi sweetly develops the relationship between Abe and Peg, who struggles with a lack of self-confidence and lives in the shadow of her four older siblings. The black-and-white line drawings by Meaghan Tosi, the author’s daughter, are delightful, featuring images that employ the same humorous exaggeration and mock-serious tone that pervade the text.
An energetic romp through a young boy’s comedic quest and a warmly told tale of youth and family.Pub Date: June 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-954782-01-3
Page Count: 284
Publisher: Dooney Press
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Unforgettably quirky, fast-paced fun.
In a race against their enemies, the Porch girls must find a peculiar pearl in order to foil a fiendish plot.
After defeating a monstrous Kyrgalops in The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science (2024), Gertrude, Eugenia, and Dee-Dee Porch find themselves (after a series of madcap events) at Lake Kagloopy’s Purple Pearl Hotel with their mentor, Millicent Quibb. Quibb informs the trio that they must find the titular pearl before the members of their evil mad-scientist rivals, the KRA, do. If they fail, the KRA (whose members include the malevolent mayor, Majestina DeWeen, and her slimy sycophantic lawyer, Ashley Cookie) plans to use the gem to bestow the Gift of Endless Vibrancy on the villainous Talon Sharktūth. Hilarity ensues as the Porches attend the annual Shrimp Ball, encounter Umbrella Turkeys, search for Cloudite (floating cloud rocks), and don invisible but smelly woolen coats. Jokes aside, the girls’ story is intriguing, offering more clues to their mysterious backgrounds and tantalizing tidbits promising later adventures. McKinnon offers bountiful backstory (alongside a running joke to encourage readers to pick up the preceding volume) and enough guffaw-inducing jokes, zany footnotes, and creative jargon to enthrall readers both new and old with her delightful sophomore effort. Mixing humor, found family, and well-wrought worldbuilding, this sequel is a certain crowd pleaser. Final art not seen; in the previous book, the grayscale illustrations showed the girls with varying skin tones.
Unforgettably quirky, fast-paced fun. (appendices) (Adventure. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9780316555296
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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