A skillfully written and illustrated tale about an imaginative tween.
In Grubb’s middle-grade novel, a boy finds that it’s not easy being a kid—and it’s even harder if you’re also a superhero.
It’s the summer before he starts sixth grade at Black Butte Ranch in Oregon, and he feels as if everything in his world is changing—especially since his beloved Great Gramp died. Nick and his grandfather invented Click, a superhero character, and the boy still loves working on a Click comic book. He’s a huge fan of comic-book hero Superman, but his old friends left their love of superheroes behind and got into team sports, and Nick’s dad wishes his son would do the same; meanwhile, Nick’s mom has him doing book reports over summer break. As a result, Nick feels like nothing he does is good enough. On top of everything else, Nick’s dad is about to lose his job and move the family to a big city. What nobody seems to notice is that Nick has unusual gifts: He’s an artist who has a great understanding of animals, and he has a big heart. The summer takes a turn for the better when he makes some new friends who like him for who is. When the townsfolk discover that someone has been going around doing good deeds at night, Nick relies on his friends to help him keep his identity a secret. Each chapter opens with a clever and beautifully drawn full-page grayscale comic by Tisdel starring Click and a cast of characters inspired by Nick’s life. The story is compulsively readable, as the pace is dynamic—sometimes exciting and other times tender and contemplative. Nick’s character is easy to relate to in a story that highlights his creativity, self-doubt, grief, patience, and genuine dedication to serving others. The prose is never patronizing and always deeply engaging, with descriptive passages that put the reader in Nick’s shoes; one feels his attachment to his home and to his developing relationships. Each character has their own distinct voice, backstory, and sensibilities, all filtered through Nick’s perspective.
A skillfully written and illustrated tale about an imaginative tween.Pub Date: April 16, 2024
ISBN: 978-1646034390
Page Count: 188
Publisher: Fitzroy Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dizzyingly silly.
The famous superhero returns to fight another villain with all the trademark wit and humor the series is known for.
Despite the title, Captain Underpants is bizarrely absent from most of this adventure. His school-age companions, George and Harold, maintain most of the spotlight. The creative chums fool around with time travel and several wacky inventions before coming upon the evil Turbo Toilet 2000, making its return for vengeance after sitting out a few of the previous books. When the good Captain shows up to save the day, he brings with him dynamic action and wordplay that meet the series’ standards. The Captain Underpants saga maintains its charm even into this, the 11th volume. The epic is filled to the brim with sight gags, toilet humor, flip-o-ramas and anarchic glee. Holding all this nonsense together is the author’s good-natured sense of harmless fun. The humor is never gross or over-the-top, just loud and innocuous. Adults may roll their eyes here and there, but youngsters will eat this up just as quickly as they devoured every other Underpants episode.
Dizzyingly silly. (Humor. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-50490-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
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Epic lunacy.
Will extragalactic rats eat the moon?
Can a cybernetic toenail clipper find a worthy purpose in the vast universe? Will the first feline astronaut ever get a slice of pizza? Read on. Reworked from the Live Cartoon series of homespun video shorts released on Instagram in 2020 but retaining that “we’re making this up as we go” quality, the episodic tale begins with the electrifying discovery that our moon is being nibbled away. Off blast one strong, silent, furry hero—“Meow”—and a stowaway robot to our nearest celestial neighbor to hook up with the imperious Queen of the Moon and head toward the dark side, past challenges from pirates on the Sea of Tranquility and a sphinx with a riddle (“It weighs a ton, but floats on air. / It’s bald but has a lot of hair.” The answer? “Meow”). They endure multiple close but frustratingly glancing encounters with pizza and finally deliver the malign, multiheaded Rat King and its toothy armies to a suitable fate. Cue the massive pizza party! Aside from one pirate captain and a general back on Earth, the human and humanoid cast in Harris’ loosely drawn cartoon panels, from the appropriately moon-faced queen on, is light skinned. Merch, music, and the original episodes are available on an associated website.
Epic lunacy. (Graphic science fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-308408-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
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