A rousing and wholesome sequel.
The fearless apprentices are back with more adventures as they try and prove themselves as heroes.
Moxie Battleborne has become stronger, wielding her weapon like a proper Level 2 hero; Pan Silversnow, particular as ever, has increased her abilities—but Fart is still working on beginners’ skills. It’s been one month since they’ve been on their own after their masters were killed by goblins, and Fart yearns to be further along, mastering the most difficult spells. Now that the three have more experience under their belts, the Great and Powerful Kevin sends our favorite phibling assistant, TickTock, to retrieve the heroic trio for his next perilous quest. Kevin needs the barf of a bedazzler, a rare and potentially deadly creature. The trio sets off to the city of Wetwater in search of Diremaw the Dread, a menacing pirate captain who supposedly knows the whereabouts of a bedazzler. Along the way, they are kidnapped by muck elves, made to defeat the muck man SquishRabble, and robbed by a mischievous crew. Through it all, the friends stick together, overcoming assumptions about themselves and one another. Simple, humorous text and compelling action sequences from start to finish make this a fun, accessible read. Black-and-white illustrations convey helpful information in an amusing and succinct manner, often extending the meaning of the text. Pan is cued as Asian; Moxie appears White; Fart reads as Black.
A rousing and wholesome sequel. (Fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-20638-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
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
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
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