An uneven time-travel romp with a patriotic punch.
Thirteen-year-old Kep Westguard is a time-traveling teen in this first installment of Schnabel’s middle-grade SF series.
It’s 1777 in Saratoga in the colony of New York, and the Revolutionary War is raging. Kep is one of a few young teens sent back in time by the KRONOS company to keep modern-day America safe. His great-aunt Annie leads the mission at KRONOS and warns Kep that he can’t take for granted the many rights he enjoys in the 21st century. Her brother-in-law, Fox, who has a vendetta against the United States government for confiscating his family’s estate, already journeyed into the past to wreak havoc, and Kep is sent back to thwart any threats to the success of the Revolution. However, he’s not allowed to take any modern-day weapons or technologies with him. Along the way, he encounters the formerly enslaved Banneker, Mary, and Finn McGee as well as the German Baroness Von Riedesel. This first installment in Schnabel’s series is a page-turner that young history buffs will enjoy. Kep is relatable and fun to travel alongside, as there’s an effortless ease to his manner. The book ably intersperses real-life historical events and people, such as the baroness, without slowing the pace. That said, there are places in the book where the dialogue feels a bit out of step. Since Kep has time traveled before, and the KRONOS company is well versed in the past, one would assume that they would have trained him well on blending in; instead, Kep’s speech is sometimes distractingly modern but only rarely questioned, as when he says “wow, that was a shocker.” In addition, the time-travel technology is only sketchily explained.
An uneven time-travel romp with a patriotic punch.Pub Date: April 18, 2023
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 214
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
