A pleasurable offering for readers eager for more Disney fairy content.
New fairy adventures await underground in London.
One day, as Tinker Bell combs the Never Land beach for neat “lost things” from the human-populated Mainland, she makes an amazing discovery—a mechanical, fairy-size flying vehicle that runs on pixie dust—and its fairy pilot is still inside! Though she’s been hurt in the accident and can’t speak, Elmira communicates by writing and drawing. She’s from the Mainland (where fairies rarely live), and she’s lost something precious. Never one to pass up an adventure, Tink repairs the ship and flies to London to investigate. There she meets the Flutterpunks, a crew of scavenger fairies, and barters some of her stash of pixie dust for their help with her search. Tinker Bell’s eyes are opened to this secret population of fairies who have adapted to survive near humans by using “shadow-talents” and “dream-talents.” But there’s trouble brewing for their community of Bleakwatch. Fans of the Disney Fairies franchise will appreciate this steampunk-flavored series opener with new content that extends the universe. This novel fits right into the canon and yet offers its own original narrative that fills a niche for audiences who have moved on from the books for younger readers. The new Flutterpunks characters are interesting and gruffly endearing; they’re described as diverse in skin tone, and their leader, Quin, uses they/them pronouns. Tinker Bell presents white.
A pleasurable offering for readers eager for more Disney fairy content. (map, cast of characters) (Fantasy. 8-13)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781368098625
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Disney Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2024
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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