More charged up than daunted by encounters in previous episodes with vampire squid, ninja frogs and a fearsome were-wiener, irrepressible dragonling Danny charges off into the Mexican jungle to visit Cousin Steve, a feathered lizard and bat scientist. Delivering her punch lines as usual in green-tinted cartoons strewn liberally through the narrative, Vernon dials up reader interest with, first, a visit to a bat cave (“The smell was eye-watering and pungent, and it crawled up inside your nose and your mouth and burned your eyes and your tear ducts and the roof of your mouth. It was like old cheese soaked in cat urine wrapped in gym socks dipped in boiled cabbage. ‘You get used to it…’ said Steve unconvincingly”). Then Danny’s suddenly kidnapped by Camazotz, a not–(as it turns out)–so-legendary monster bat with unsatisfied maternal instincts. A night of narrow squeaks ensues, capped by the discovery of a golden treasure guarded by Camazotz’s larger and much more hostile mate. Thanks largely to the efforts of Danny’s nerdy sidekick Wendell, the scaly buddies do get home by morning—but not before readers get plenty of reasons to echo Danny’s trademark: “That. Is. So. Cool!” (Graphic hybrid fantasy. 8-11)
Pub Date: March 17, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3525-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2011
A story whose idea has potential but that needs characters with real depth and a more complex and consistent plot to have...
The peculiar residents of Eldritch Manor return.
In what is basically a rerun with a few more characters, 12-year-old Willa once again interacts with the odd senior citizens (actually mythical creatures in human form) that she first encountered at their retirement home in Book 1. As in the first book, the plot revolves around forces of evil in the form of spreading dark holes from which unpleasant creatures emerge. Willa, the quarrelsome senior citizens, and myriad fantasy beings engage in battle with the evil creatures. While the story’s bones have potential, the members of the plot’s too-large cast of characters are too thinly sketched to engage readers’ connection, and even Willa, the protagonist, comes across as more flat than intriguing. A weak plot twist carries little resonance, as the character it involves is one-dimensional, and its overall theme—anger contributes to evil—is presented in a tension-killing, obvious, didactic manner. While the story contains much action, it relies heavily on telling rather than showing, which has the effect of coming across as repetitive and confusing rather than heart-racing. A promising storyline—that of Willa’s grandmother, begun in Book 1—does not develop here.
A story whose idea has potential but that needs characters with real depth and a more complex and consistent plot to have impact. (Fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4597-3205-6
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Dundurn
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
Middle-grade readers will be carried along by the buoyancy of the writing, the skillful design, and the humor on almost...
The same team who introduced the Enchanted Realm in Diary of a Mad Brownie (2015; now retitled Cursed) presents a second go-round for the delectation of middle-grade fantasy readers.
Gerald Overflight, a griffin, has run away from home, driven by his siblings’ constant bullying and, the final blow, his father’s true feelings about him. He flies off, accompanied by his teacher, the tricky Master Abelard, who has his own reasons for breaking a boatload of the Realm’s rules. Readers will delight in the tribulations endured by this sensitive griffin, his new friend, the human Bradley Ashango, and the assortment of creatures who, willy-nilly, are sucked into the matrix of their activities. The strength of this story is in showing Gerald’s and Brad’s parallel growth, a slow process that solidly underpins the hilarious (occasionally slapstick) story. Readers learn what’s going on through the dark-skinned Brad’s journal, Gerald’s diary, Master Abelard’s notebook, newspaper articles, and various documents that shed light on both cultures, human and mythic. Most of the satire provides blameless amusement with the exception of a few cheap shots at political correctness in a list of “Forbidden Topics at the University Enchantica.”
Middle-grade readers will be carried along by the buoyancy of the writing, the skillful design, and the humor on almost every page. Egg-ceptionally funny! (Fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-385-39255-6
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
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