What it lacks in richness and profundity it makes up for in thrills; not a bad choice for a wholesome adventure.
Spiritual warfare is such stuff as dreams are made on in this Christian fantasy.
By day, Archer Keaton is an ordinary high school freshman. At night he is a Dreamtreader, patrolling the Realm Between and battling the minions of the Nightmare Lord. But all is not well in the Dream: The other Dreamtreaders have vanished, and ominous tokens have followed Archer into the waking world. His daytime life isn’t so great either: Crush Kara barely speaks to him, and new kid Rigby Thames is attracting followers into a dangerous hobby, threatening both the Dream and the Temporal realms. Dream warfare is hardly an original trope, but it is handled deftly here, with carefully delineated rules and vivid imagery, from groan-worthy to grisly to shatteringly beautiful. Except for heavy-handed paranoia about “lucid dreaming,” the evangelistic subtext is well-integrated but not intrusive. The characters mostly read like real people, with all their messy complexities; even Rigby, with his wince-inducing accent and staged Brit mannerisms, reveals unexpected nuances. The plot clips along with a fine balance between worldbuilding and action, and the climactic twists are truly surprising, providing both a satisfying conclusion and sufficient sinister foreshadowing to fuel the promised sequels.
What it lacks in richness and profundity it makes up for in thrills; not a bad choice for a wholesome adventure. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: May 6, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4003-2366-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2014
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
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense.
In the midst of political turmoil, how do you escape the only country that you’ve ever known and navigate a new life? Parallel stories of three different middle school–aged refugees—Josef from Nazi Germany in 1938, Isabel from 1994 Cuba, and Mahmoud from 2015 Aleppo—eventually intertwine for maximum impact.
Three countries, three time periods, three brave protagonists. Yet these three refugee odysseys have so much in common. Each traverses a landscape ruled by a dictator and must balance freedom, family, and responsibility. Each initially leaves by boat, struggles between visibility and invisibility, copes with repeated obstacles and heart-wrenching loss, and gains resilience in the process. Each third-person narrative offers an accessible look at migration under duress, in which the behavior of familiar adults changes unpredictably, strangers exploit the vulnerabilities of transients, and circumstances seem driven by random luck. Mahmoud eventually concludes that visibility is best: “See us….Hear us. Help us.” With this book, Gratz accomplishes a feat that is nothing short of brilliant, offering a skillfully wrought narrative laced with global and intergenerational reverberations that signal hope for the future. Excellent for older middle grade and above in classrooms, book groups, and/or communities looking to increase empathy for new and existing arrivals from afar.
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense. (maps, author’s note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: July 25, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-88083-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
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