When the jokes work, these hounds are almost as ridiculous as the greatest superheroes.
Blame Spider-Man.
When Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider, he developed the spider’s most notable abilities, like the ability to walk on ceilings. This graphic novel follows the same model, but the dogs in the story develop even less-glamorous abilities after a spaceship crashes in their neighborhood. They develop the powers of, well, dogs. They can shed super amounts of hair and spurt super drool. The jokes are just as silly. Many of them simply repeat the same lines over and over again. Great Dane keeps shouting, “There’s a spaceship in our backyard!” and when Sheepdog asks where it came from, Great Dane says, “Space, I’m guessing. ’Cause of the name. Spaceship.” Those sequences require patience, but some of the jokes are so dopey they’re clever. A horde of evil kittens is distracted by a gigantic laser pointer, and a mecha-chicken is adorably random. But the most appealing feature may be the characters’ expressions. When a kitten uses Sheepdog as a stepstool, the dog’s befuddlement is priceless. The artwork is made up of such simple, open shapes that it looks like a coloring book—or it would if Goldman hadn’t filled it in with bold, eye-catching blocks of color. The few humans in the story are diverse.
When the jokes work, these hounds are almost as ridiculous as the greatest superheroes. (Graphic humor. 7-10)Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-64847-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2020
Dizzyingly silly.
The famous superhero returns to fight another villain with all the trademark wit and humor the series is known for.
Despite the title, Captain Underpants is bizarrely absent from most of this adventure. His school-age companions, George and Harold, maintain most of the spotlight. The creative chums fool around with time travel and several wacky inventions before coming upon the evil Turbo Toilet 2000, making its return for vengeance after sitting out a few of the previous books. When the good Captain shows up to save the day, he brings with him dynamic action and wordplay that meet the series’ standards. The Captain Underpants saga maintains its charm even into this, the 11th volume. The epic is filled to the brim with sight gags, toilet humor, flip-o-ramas and anarchic glee. Holding all this nonsense together is the author’s good-natured sense of harmless fun. The humor is never gross or over-the-top, just loud and innocuous. Adults may roll their eyes here and there, but youngsters will eat this up just as quickly as they devoured every other Underpants episode.
Dizzyingly silly. (Humor. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-50490-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
With plenty left to be resolved, the next entry will be eagerly sought after.
Drake has been selected by the king to serve as a Dragon Master, quite a change for an 8-year-old farmer boy.
The dragons are a secret, and the reason King Roland has them is a mystery, but what is clear is that the Dragon Stone has identified Drake as one of the rare few children who have a special connection with dragons and the ability to serve as a trainer. Drake’s dragon is a long brown creature with, at first, no particular talents that Drake can identify. He calls the dragon Worm. It isn’t long before Drake begins to realize he has a very strong connection with Worm and can share what seem to be his dragon’s thoughts. After one of the other Dragon Masters decides to illicitly take the dragons outside, disaster strikes. The cave they are passing through collapses, blocking the passageway, and then Worm’s special talent becomes evident. The first of a new series of early chapter books, this entry is sure to attract fans. Brief chapters, large print, lots of action, attractive illustrations in every spread, including a maplike panorama, an enviable protagonist—who wouldn’t want to be a Dragon Master?—all combine to make an entertaining read.
With plenty left to be resolved, the next entry will be eagerly sought after. (Fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-64624-6
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Branches/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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