Despite the meandering storyline, fans of the two previous slapstick adventures will eagerly welcome back Lupe and the...
The over-the-top lowriders Lupe, Elirio, and Flapjack are back with their gato, Genie.
This nostalgic journey back in time chronicles, in parallel stories, the moment the lives of the then escuincles—pipsqueaks—first intersected. They join together to help Lupe’s two mothers enter a car show, but Mamá Impala and Mamá Gazelle need the approval of the hosting car club. The bullies controlling the entire show, Los Matamoscas, make up arbitrary rules to keep the women out because everyone knows car clubs are for los machos. Lupe’s moms’ car must clear speed bumps without scraping, they must keep a 5-gallon jar of agua fresca from spilling while taking an entire lap, and any visible brush strokes on the paint job are grounds for disqualification. All is saved by Elirio’s pointy proboscis, Lupe’s quick thinking, and Flapjack’s slurping capacity. Raúl the Third’s signature style again frenetically populates the sepia pages with eye-catching detail that highlights lowrider humor and culture. Camper’s story, however, trips, snags, and hitches on too many densely worded moments of exposition. These asides, such as the recognition of Indigenous words in modern languages and the contributions of the art collective Asco, would have been more appropriately placed in the backmatter (where they are discussed again anyway) rather than in the middle of the narrative. Also, some scenes are unnecessarily drawn out, as in the case of the opening five and a half pages of gratuitous flatulence.
Despite the meandering storyline, fans of the two previous slapstick adventures will eagerly welcome back Lupe and the gang’s Spanish-infused exploits. (glossary, author’s notes, sources) (Graphic adventure. 9-14)Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4521-6315-4
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high...
Two parallel stories, one of a Syrian boy from Aleppo fleeing war, and another of a white American boy, son of a NATO contractor, dealing with the challenges of growing up, intersect at a house in Brussels.
Ahmed lost his father while crossing the Mediterranean. Alone and broke in Europe, he takes things into his own hands to get to safety but ends up having to hide in the basement of a residential house. After months of hiding, he is discovered by Max, a boy of similar age and parallel high integrity and courage, who is experiencing his own set of troubles learning a new language, moving to a new country, and being teased at school. In an unexpected turn of events, the two boys and their new friends Farah, a Muslim Belgian girl, and Oscar, a white Belgian boy, successfully scheme for Ahmed to go to school while he remains in hiding the rest of the time. What is at stake for Ahmed is immense, and so is the risk to everyone involved. Marsh invites art and history to motivate her protagonists, drawing parallels to gentiles who protected Jews fleeing Nazi terror and citing present-day political news. This well-crafted and suspenseful novel touches on the topics of refugees and immigrant integration, terrorism, Islam, Islamophobia, and the Syrian war with sensitivity and grace.
A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high values in the face of grave risk and succeed in drawing goodwill from others. (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-30757-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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