A series to watch.
After sealing off The Night Door (2018) in his first adventure, young Edison Beaker and his plucky little sister, Tesla, think their monster-hunting days may be over.
But then their cherished great-grandma Gigi falls ill and, from her nursing-home bed, warns Edison and Tesla they must return to the Underwhere to find both the lost city of Pharos and the Spark, then relight its snuffed torch. She gives Tesla a monster-detecting bracelet called the Creature Beeper and tells Edison to look for her Underwhere journal at her old home. Once at Gigi’s house, the siblings discover it teeming with Underlings, monsters usually only found in the Underwhere. Luckily, they are saved by their friend Knox and transported back to the Underwhere on the back of a giant, snarky, vegetarian cat named Alexander. Once there, the race is on to find Pharos and the Spark before evil Baron Umbra can defeat them. Cammuso’s graphic offering should easily delight young readers with its zippy pacing, generous humor, and approachable characters. Although it’s a lively and exciting portal fantasy of otherworlds and monster fighting, themes of bullying, acceptance, and family are explored, giving this a solid layer of depth alongside the fun. This series only builds momentum with each volume, so expect a monstrous demand for subsequent adventures. Edison, Tesla, and Gigi present white; Knox is purple.
A series to watch. (Graphic fantasy. 7-11)Pub Date: Nov. 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-425-29195-5
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
Thought-provoking and charming.
A sophisticated robot—with the capacity to use senses of sight, hearing, and smell—is washed to shore on an island, the only robot survivor of a cargo of 500.
When otters play with her protective packaging, the robot is accidently activated. Roz, though without emotions, is intelligent and versatile. She can observe and learn in service of both her survival and her principle function: to help. Brown links these basic functions to the kind of evolution Roz undergoes as she figures out how to stay dry and intact in her wild environment—not easy, with pine cones and poop dropping from above, stormy weather, and a family of cranky bears. She learns to understand and eventually speak the language of the wild creatures (each species with its different “accent”). An accident leaves her the sole protector of a baby goose, and Roz must ask other creatures for help to shelter and feed the gosling. Roz’s growing connection with her environment is sweetly funny, reminiscent of Randall Jarrell’s The Animal Family. At every moment Roz’s actions seem plausible and logical yet surprisingly full of something like feeling. Robot hunters with guns figure into the climax of the story as the outside world intrudes. While the end to Roz’s benign and wild life is startling and violent, Brown leaves Roz and her companions—and readers—with hope.
Thought-provoking and charming. (Science fiction/fantasy. 7-11)Pub Date: April 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-316-38199-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low.
Recasting Dog Man and his feline ward, Li’l Petey, as costumed superheroes, Pilkey looks East of Eden in this follow-up to Tale of Two Kitties (2017).
The Steinbeck novel’s Cain/Abel motif gets some play here, as Petey, “world’s evilest cat” and cloned Li’l Petey’s original, tries assiduously to tempt his angelic counterpart over to the dark side only to be met, ultimately at least, by Li’l Petey’s “Thou mayest.” (There are also occasional direct quotes from the novel.) But inner struggles between good and evil assume distinctly subordinate roles to riotous outer ones, as Petey repurposes robots built for a movie about the exploits of Dog Man—“the thinking man’s Rin Tin Tin”—while leading a general rush to the studio’s costume department for appropriate good guy/bad guy outfits in preparation for the climactic battle. During said battle and along the way Pilkey tucks in multiple Flip-O-Rama inserts as well as general gags. He lists no fewer than nine ways to ask “who cut the cheese?” and includes both punny chapter titles (“The Bark Knight Rises”) and nods to Hamiltonand Mary Poppins. The cartoon art, neatly and brightly colored by Garibaldi, is both as easy to read as the snappy dialogue and properly endowed with outsized sound effects, figures displaying a range of skin colors, and glimpses of underwear (even on robots).
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low. (drawing instructions) (Graphic fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-93518-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
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