Cheers of “STOOKY!” will rise when Origami Yoda answers “The End?” with “Way No!” (Graphic fiction hybrid. 9-12)
Is Principal Rabbski the evil Empress of FunTime or the Origami Rebel Alliance’s only hope?
Picking up where The Surprise Attack of Jabba the Puppet (2013) left off, the seventh graders of McQuarrie Middle School and their individual, ever-present origami Star Wars character puppets continue their fight with Principal Rabbski to restore their fun (and educational) elective classes and themselves of the soul-crushingly boring standardized test prep classes created by FunTime. Principal Rabbski agreed (when threatened with purposeful test-flunking) to try to do something about the embarrassing rapping-calculator videos and repetitive worksheets of FunTime, but she’s done nothing for weeks. Now, it seems one of the rebels has given Principal Rabbski the latest case file, covered with printed labels—ostensibly notes from Princess Labelmaker— telling her she is their “only hope.” Meanwhile, the Origami Rebel Alliance continues to try to learn and help one another. They play crab soccer, put on their lunchtime musical and prove to Mike’s mother Star Wars is not evil—but will the coming of Xtreme.Fun™ seal their doom? Fans will devour this satisfying and nicely realistic conclusion to the story set up in the previous volume. Characters grow, and non–Star Wars pop-culture references seep in. Readers new to the series are advised to go back to the beginning; they won’t regret it.
Cheers of “STOOKY!” will rise when Origami Yoda answers “The End?” with “Way No!” (Graphic fiction hybrid. 9-12)Pub Date: March 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4197-1052-0
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2014
“Dad would sometimes pee on him, to mark him with his scent, and Mom would seem to smile, and everything would be right with the world.” Human boy Clam Firehead was raised by wolves, literally. The other wolves regard him with some embarrassment as their “furless mascot,” and it’s everything Mom Wolf can do to keep Dad from “feasting ravenously on his warm, bloody guts.” When this danger finally becomes too great, she steals a private-school uniform from a nearby camper and sends her precious cub off into the human world. Thus begins a positively giddy comedy of errors, as Clam applies his hard-earned wolf-pack lessons to Hargrove Academy for the Gifted, Bright, and Perceptive Child, slowly unveils shadowy memories of his pre-lupine life and happens to meet a girl who is exactly his height and has his exact shade of fiery red hair. While amiable satire and cheap laughs abound, an overriding sweetness prevails as the likable Clam ironically brings a good dose of humanity to the civilized world. (Fiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-59990-509-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Jan. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2010
Given its enduring themes, this novel from a small Catholic press has some potential for crossover appeal.
Test results may prove that 12-year-old Gabriel Carpenter is St. Jude Middle School’s only resident genius, but Mensa status sure doesn’t seem to make life any easier.
Gabe still can’t open his own locker or come up with anything intelligent to say to Becca Piccarelli. He stinks at sports, and to make matters worse, his second-best friend, brainy Maya, will barely speak to him anymore. Things get even more complicated when Gabe and Maya find themselves on the same team in the Middle School Academic Olympics. Though the first-person narration frequently feels forced and the book would have benefitted from a subtler attempt at humor than the clichéd boy-book-fart-jokes Haynes relies on, Gabe is a sympathetic underdog middle-grade readers will likely enjoy rooting for. At its core, this is clearly religious fiction, with references to saints and prayer throughout, but Gabe’s struggle to reconcile his gifts with the traditional social dictates of what’s cool and what’s not transcend affiliation. Arguably the most compelling plotline in the novel centers on Gabe’s struggle to fit in at home: Though his father is admittedly thrilled by his son’s confirmed genius, his actions lead Gabe to believe that he would prefer a star athlete to a star student.
Given its enduring themes, this novel from a small Catholic press has some potential for crossover appeal. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-08198-0830-1
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Pauline Teen
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
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