Though the book is admittedly rousing, readers are better off setting sail on Jason Fry’s Curse of the Iris (2014) than on...
The “space pirate” genre turns oddly literal in this first book in a series.
Emma Garton doesn’t pay attention when her best friend, Herbie, comes up with ludicrous explanations for her dad’s mysterious travels. Yet even Herbie is taken aback when the truth comes out. After all, it’s not every kid who’s born to alien pirates wanted for a multitude of crimes, like the theft of the Pyxis, an amulet with mysterious powers. When her parents are hauled away, Emma and Herbie are left in possession of the hidden Pyxis as well as her family boat. Traveling between galaxies means navigating the intergalactic seas. Determined to save her parents, Emma and Herbie must face down whole navies—and a dragon—while endeavoring to keep the Pyxis out of the wrong hands. Unfortunately, both the metaphysics of intergalactic travel and characters’ motivations are too often sketchy at best. The adventure never turns dull, but the logistics of the worldbuilding are tricky. Most problematic are the waterways among star systems. This method of travel is never adequately explained, making it appear as though the author wanted to have her cake (space pirates) and to eat it too (high seas).
Though the book is admittedly rousing, readers are better off setting sail on Jason Fry’s Curse of the Iris (2014) than on this confusing, tepid star-sea journey. (Science fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-39216-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit...
The author of the Anastasia books as well as more serious fiction (Rabble Starkey, 1987) offers her first historical fiction—a story about the escape of the Jews from Denmark in 1943.
Five years younger than Lisa in Carol Matas' Lisa's War (1989), Annemarie Johansen has, at 10, known three years of Nazi occupation. Though ever cautious and fearful of the ubiquitous soldiers, she is largely unaware of the extent of the danger around her; the Resistance kept even its participants safer by telling them as little as possible, and Annemarie has never been told that her older sister Lise died in its service. When the Germans plan to round up the Jews, the Johansens take in Annemarie's friend, Ellen Rosen, and pretend she is their daughter; later, they travel to Uncle Hendrik's house on the coast, where the Rosens and other Jews are transported by fishing boat to Sweden. Apart from Lise's offstage death, there is little violence here; like Annemarie, the reader is protected from the full implications of events—but will be caught up in the suspense and menace of several encounters with soldiers and in Annemarie's courageous run as courier on the night of the escape. The book concludes with the Jews' return, after the war, to homes well kept for them by their neighbors.
A deftly told story that dramatizes how Danes appointed themselves bodyguards—not only for their king, who was in the habit of riding alone in Copenhagen, but for their Jews. (Historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: April 1, 1989
ISBN: 0547577095
Page Count: 156
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1989
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
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