This touching tale about finding strength in uniqueness is a well-crafted read from start to finish.
Zoe G. Reindeer hates her last name and her big feet and anything else that makes her "just Zoe."
The 11-year-old black girl enjoys living next to her father's Pasadena nursery, Doc Reindeer's Exotic Plant Wonderland. Among the plants she can be safe from her queen-bee older sister, Jade, and annoying genius younger brother, Harper. Inside the Wonderland, Zoe feels at peace. Outside the Wonderland, she is “just Zoe.” Although she loves hanging out with her best friend, budding filmmaker Quincy Hill, Zoe struggles to connect with others. No one seems to appreciate her for who she is. Even her next-door neighbor Mrs. Warner calls her “little Miss Jade.” All day long she daydreams of Imaginary Zoe, the cool teenage Zoe with a perfect life and overflowing confidence. When a kind visitor stops by the Wonderland, Zoe begins to see that there's more to her than "just Zoe." Woods develops a realistic adolescent struggle with self-acceptance. One betrayal, one relentlessly mean older sister, one moment of rejection weigh heavily on Zoe. Conversely, one kind word, a few minutes of undivided attention, helps disrupt her negative self-image. Young readers will easily identify with Zoe's unbridled curiosity and wishes for the future, and the ending satisfies and avoids being hokey or heavy-handed.
This touching tale about finding strength in uniqueness is a well-crafted read from start to finish. (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-17097-3
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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