A series opener that introduces enjoyably quirky tween detectives.
An Australian girl who works in a funeral home hopes to solve a murder.
Eighth grader Alice, who has muscular atrophy of one leg, loves to help out at her family’s business, Tranquility Funerals. She assists with aesthetic services—“the beautification of the corpse”—and she’s perplexed that anyone finds that odd. Alice also has a secret ability: Sometimes a body’s accessories are “resonant,” and they tell her a story about the owner’s previous life. It’s unsurprising that Alice has no friends. While she’s perfectly happy being friendless, she’s equally unbothered when a protective teacher matches her up with bullying victim Violet, who has a rare and extremely dangerous sunlight allergy called solar urticaria. Soon after, Violet’s uncle George is found dead on the pier where he worked, and Alice has a resonant moment while helping to prepare his body. She’s convinced he was murdered and ropes Violet in to her investigation. There are so many suspects! Was it George’s widow, the rough teens who gather under the pier, the overwrought security guard, the sender of an anonymous note, or the terrifying celebrity allergist? Alice possesses a precocious vocabulary, tends toward pedantry, is obsessive to an extent that annoys her new friend, and struggles with empathy and tact (“Tact meant concealing your curiosity”). But they do make an excellent team, Alice finds she appreciates having Violet in her life, and readers will have fun getting to know them. Most characters read white.
A series opener that introduces enjoyably quirky tween detectives. (Mystery. 9-12)Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9780823455621
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2024
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
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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