In a bizarre but good-natured genre mashup, two hedgehogs run around outer space fighting pirates and seeking talismans. Trundle is a lamplighter (and homebody) on a seemingly pre-industrial asteroid known for cabbage farms. Feisty stranger Esmeralda accosts the baffled Trundle and insists they go on a quest. Before he can refuse, pirates attack and the two hedgehogs flee. Running from the pirates, who are grizzled “pigs and rats and weasels and foxes,” Trundle and Esmeralda fall off the planet’s edge onto a windship—interplanetary transportation in this archipelago of asteroids requires wind vessels—and end up on a planet where enslaved animals labor in mines. They get into and out of various scrapes with derring-do and vigor; Trundle finds his enthusiasm along the way. They seek six legendary crowns that belonged to wise badgers in the past. The ramshackle science is vintage steampunk (outer space has air to breathe and breeze to power windships built like watercrafts; planetary gravity comes and goes). Jones has a nice knack for stringing words together at a bustling pace: “A sharp spitting spluttering crackling sound came to his ears.” Facile stereotypes about “Roamany” (Esmeralda’s exotic, wild, not-quite-moral culture) are a shame, but they are also in keeping with the steampunk feel. Readers who revel in collections and patterns will enjoy finding the crystal crown here and will look forward to the next five books that promise the next five crowns. (Fantasy. 7-10)
Pub Date: April 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-200623-3
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Lively fun with animal friends.
Has Plum’s pep deserted him?
Several animals from the Athensville Zoo are on their way to visit an elementary school. Overconfident Itch the ningbing (an Australian marsupial), unaware that zookeeper Lizzie will be doing all the talking, looks forward to “lecturing eager young minds.” Plum, the usually chipper peacock, on the other hand, is anxious—maybe the schoolchildren won’t like him or he’ll get lost. So when they arrive at the school to find the students have been sent home due to a blizzard, Plum is relieved. The animals are left in a school gym for the night until three self-important class mice free them. Itch heads for the library to meet the learned turtle, but Plum reluctantly explores with his friends. When his anxiety peaks, they reassure him, and when the mice reject Meg, another peacock, as “borrrring” and uncool, they buoy her as well before everyone comes together to save Itch, who finds himself outside and stranded in a snowdrift. Unlike Leave It to Plum (2022), this is not a mystery, and the relationship focus shifts from Lizzie to the rodents, but the pace is brisk, and sequel seekers will be pleased to revisit familiar characters (if dismayed that Itch’s longing for knowledge leads to his downfall). In Phelan’s engaging grayscale pen-and-wash illustrations, Lizzie has short curly hair; text and art cue her as Latine.
Lively fun with animal friends. (how to draw Plum) (Chapter book. 7-10)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-06-307920-5
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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