An intense, thrilling wilderness survival story.
A group of middle schoolers’ fishing trip goes awry when a forest fire threatens their lives.
Sixth grade in McCall, Idaho, was a social war between popular girls Swann Siddiq and McKenzie Crenner, with everyone choosing sides—and Annette Willard caught in the middle. With the summer before seventh grade almost over, Annette decides to start the year fresh by going fishing with her best friend, Yumi; her new pals, Swann and Kelton; and her crush Hunter. After the group makes a bet with McKenzie and her friends about who can catch the most fish, Annette and company continue on to a river fishing spot. Feeling like the fifth wheel, Yumi heads back to town only to come across McKenzie and crew—and discover a forest fire heading toward her friends. Trapped, the two friend groups must work together, using their skills to navigate the woods and outrun the fire. Reedy crafts an authentic, absorbing nature survival story. Brief interludes between chapters detailing the spread of the fire and other characters’ experiences with this natural disaster add more context about the severity of wildfires. The book’s first half is slower, focusing on relationships and fishing, but the second half moves as quickly as the intense fire. Despite being the series’ third book, it can be read as a stand-alone. McCall is described as a predominantly White town; Yumi is biracial (Japanese and assumed White).
An intense, thrilling wilderness survival story. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781324011415
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Norton Young Readers
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
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
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BOOK REVIEW
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride.
Zipping back and forth in time atop outsized robo–bell bottoms, mad inventor Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) legs his way to center stage in this slightly less-labored continuation of episode 9.
The action commences after a rambling recap and a warning not to laugh or smile on pain of being forced to read Sarah Plain and Tall. Pilkey first sends his peevish protagonist back a short while to save the Earth (destroyed in the previous episode), then on to various prehistoric eras in pursuit of George, Harold and the Captain. It’s all pretty much an excuse for many butt jokes, dashes of off-color humor (“Tippy pressed the button on his Freezy-Beam 4000, causing it to rise from the depths of his Robo-Pants”), a lengthy wordless comic and two tussles in “Flip-o-rama.” Still, the chase kicks off an ice age, the extinction of the dinosaurs and the Big Bang (here the Big “Ka-Bloosh!”). It ends with a harrowing glimpse of what George and Harold would become if they decided to go straight. The author also chucks in a poopy-doo-doo song with musical notation (credited to Albert P. Einstein) and plenty of ink-and-wash cartoon illustrations to crank up the ongoing frenzy.
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-17536-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
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BOOK REVIEW
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