Hilarious comic mayhem rounded out by affection and insight.
Five friends create an elaborate plan to prevent private school from separating them in this debut middle-grade novel.
In the summer after fourth grade, the Dudes—Tyler Reynolds, twins Ryan and Connor Maguire, Nate Howe, and Deven Singh—have big plans to continue their mission of doing “stuff that’s great and memorable.” They’re an assorted bunch: Tyler, the story’s narrator, chronicles the Dude adventures; Ryan, the leader, comes up with cool plans; and Connor throws himself into physical challenges. They’re White while Nate, the brainiac, is African American and Deven, the jokester, is Indian American. All five are obsessed with the TV show Ninja Wars, which inspires “Operation Ninja Prowl”; while the neighborhood is preoccupied with a block party, they’ll dress in black and practice stealthy outdoor maneuvers. But they get mistaken for burglars and draw police attention, which would be all good fun—except for Nate’s parents' deciding such hijinks are “not the future we want for our son,” and private school is the answer. Over the summer, while the Dudes pursue ninja-adjacent activities, they’ll need all their ingenuity to hatch schemes for keeping Nate in public school. With one priceless, laugh-out-loud scenario after another, the mother-and-son team of Johnson and Reynolds delivers a fine tale in this Dudes Adventure series opener. For example, the friends build a homemade obstacle course with tests like the “Rain of Blows”—where the ninja-in-training must safely jump through spinning badminton rackets (which are duct-taped to poles on a rotating wheel). At the same time, the story is given depth by emotional challenges each friend must face, described with subtlety. Tyler, for example, has a new baby brother grabbing his mom’s attention while the Maguire twins’ parents have recently divorced. Readers will likely be eager to read the next adventure.
Hilarious comic mayhem rounded out by affection and insight.Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-949212-01-3
Page Count: 203
Publisher: Epic Spiel Press
Review Posted Online: May 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
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
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