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MRS. SMITH'S SPY SCHOOL FOR GIRLS

From the Mrs. Smith's Spy School for Girls series , Vol. 1

A sassy, new spy series with a spunky heroine, multitalented sidekicks, and tense, rapid-fire adventure

Unexpectedly enrolled in a prestigious boarding school, 12-year-old Abigail suddenly finds herself embroiled in a dangerous mission for a secret spy ring.

“A chronic user of poor judgment,” mixed-race Abigail has dark eyes and hair, “deep tan” skin, and a penchant for trouble. Facing a “complicated year,” her white, single-parent mother, Jennifer, enrolls Abigail in Smith School in Connecticut, hoping her daughter will be challenged. However, Abigail soon discovers Smith clandestinely recruits and trains select students to gather intelligence for the Center, an elite national security organization. To Abigail’s amazement, she also learns her mother’s a Smith alum, was “the Center’s top agent,” has vanished trailing the infamous Ghost, and may be in “terrible danger.” The Center enlists Abigail to act as bait to locate Jennifer, but the mission aborts, leaving Abigail on her own to outwit Ghost operatives. Determined to find Jennifer, Abigail cracks a key clue with help from Smith classmates (a multiethnic bunch) and emerges a wannabe spy. Abigail’s first-person, present-tense narration lends nail-biting immediacy, vulnerability, and self-effacing humor to her attempts to escape from Smith, her cursory spy training, and her harrowing experiences as a hostage and escapee.

A sassy, new spy series with a spunky heroine, multitalented sidekicks, and tense, rapid-fire adventure . (Mystery. 9-13)

Pub Date: July 4, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-4814-9020-7

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Aladdin

Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017

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CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS AND THE TERRIFYING RETURN OF TIPPY TINKLETROUSERS

From the Captain Underpants series , Vol. 9

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

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BEYOND MULBERRY GLEN

An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.

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In Florence’s middle-grade fantasy novel, a young girl’s heart is tested in the face of an evil, spreading Darkness.

Eleven-year-old Lydia, “freckle-cheeked and round-eyed, with hair the color of pine bark and fair skin,” is struggling with the knowledge that she has reached the age to apprentice as an herbalist. Lydia is reluctant to leave her beloved, magical Mulberry Glen and her cozy Housetree in the woods—she’ll miss Garder, the Glen’s respected philosopher; her fairy guardian Pit; her human friend Livy; and even the mischievous part-elf, part-imp, part-human twins Zale and Zamilla. But the twins go missing after hearing of a soul-sapping Darkness that has swallowed a forest and is creeping into minds and engulfing entire towns. They have secretly left to find a rare fruit that, it is said, will stop the Darkness if thrown into the heart of the mountain that rises out of the lethal forest. Lydia follows, determined to find the twins before they, too, fall victim to the Darkness. During her journey, accompanied by new friends, she gradually realizes that she herself has a dangerous role to play in the quest to stop the Darkness. In this well-crafted fantasy, Florence skillfully equates the physical manifestation of Darkness with the feelings of insecurity and powerlessness that Lydia first struggles with when thinking of leaving the Glen. Such negative thoughts grow more intrusive the closer she and her friends come to the Darkness—and to Lydia’s ultimate, powerfully rendered test of character, which leads to a satisfyingly realistic, not quite happily-ever-after ending. Highlights include a delightfully haunting, reality-shifting library and a deft sprinkling of Latin throughout the text; Pit’s pet name for Lydia is mea flosculus (“my little flower”). Fine-lined ink drawings introducing each chapter add a pleasing visual element to this well-grounded fairy tale.

An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.

Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025

ISBN: 9781956393095

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Waxwing Books

Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025

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