“Sammy Feral = dude supreme!” he crows at the end. Forcibly engineered as his ultimate triumph is, he merits a few howls of...
Readers afflicted only with pesky sibs should count their blessings: 12-year-old Sammy comes home one day to find his whole family (dog included) turned into a pack of ravening werewolves.
Sammy is saved from being bitten himself, or maybe torn apart, by the timely arrival of Donny, a leather-clad cryptozoologist who shoots tranquilizer darts from a silver blowpipe and explains that the werewolves will revert to (more or less, as it happens) human once the full moon has passed. Fortunately, Sammy’s parents own a public zoo with behind-the-scenes transit cages that can hold the feral Ferals temporarily. Unfortunately, even back in human form, Sammy’s little sister, Natty, retains a taste for raw sausage and live hamster. Can Sammy devise a cure for the Were Virus before the next full moon—while also fending off professor Pickitt, a rival cryptozoologist scheming to turn the Feral Zoo into a display of freaky creatures? Sammy chronicles his plunge into “wackoville” in diarylike entries punctuated with bulleted lists, shocked exclamations of “rewind!” and simple line drawings of the cast and selected scenes.
“Sammy Feral = dude supreme!” he crows at the end. Forcibly engineered as his ultimate triumph is, he merits a few howls of appreciation for staying so resolutely on task. (Adventure. 9-11)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-62365-032-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Mobius
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
A waggish tale with a serious (and timely) theme.
An age-old rivalry is reluctantly put aside when two young vacationers are lost in the wilderness.
Anthropomorphic—in body if definitely not behavior—Dogg Scout Oscar and pampered Molly Hissleton stray from their separate camps, meet by chance in a trackless magic forest, and almost immediately recognize that their only chance of survival, distasteful as the notion may be, lies in calling a truce. Patterson and Grabenstein really work the notion here that cooperation is better than prejudice founded on ignorance and habit, interspersing explicit exchanges on the topic while casting the squabbling pair with complementary abilities that come out as they face challenges ranging from finding food to escaping such predators as a mountain lion and a pack of vicious “weaselboars.” By the time they cross a wide river (on a raft steered by “Old Jim,” an otter whose homespun utterances are generally cribbed from Mark Twain—an uneasy reference) back to civilization, the two are BFFs. But can that friendship survive the return, with all the social and familial pressures to resume the old enmity? A climactic cage-match–style confrontation before a worked-up multispecies audience provides the answer. In the illustrations (not seen in finished form) López plops wide-eyed animal heads atop clothed, more or less human forms and adds dialogue balloons for punchlines.
A waggish tale with a serious (and timely) theme. (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-41156-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
Readers will gobble this down and look for more, make no mythtake.
Promising myth-adventures aplenty, this kickoff episode introduces young Zeus, “a very special, yet clueless godboy.”
After 10-year-old Zeus is plucked from his childhood cave in Crete by armed “Cronies” of the Titan king, Cronus, he is rescued by harpies. He then finds himself in a Grecian temple where he acquires a lightning bolt with the general personality of a puppy and receives hints of his destiny from an Oracle with fogged eyeglasses. Recaptured and about to be eaten by Cronus, Zeus hurls the bolt down the Titan’s throat—causing the king to choke and then, thanks to an alert Crony’s Heimlich maneuver, to barf up several previously eaten Olympians. Spooning in numerous ingredients from the origin myth’s traditional versions, the veteran authors whip up a smooth confection, spiced with both gross bits and contemporary idiom (“ ‘Eew!’ a voice shrieked. ‘This is disgusting!’ ”) and well larded with full-page illustrations (not seen). One thorough washing later, off marches the now-cocky lad with new allies Poseidon and Hera, to rescue more Olympians in the next episode.
Readers will gobble this down and look for more, make no mythtake. (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-5787-4
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2012
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