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WHEELS OF LEGEND

From the Knights and Bikes series , Vol. 3

Brisk, bold, and buoyant.

The Penfurzy Rebel Bicycle Club saves not only the island, but maybe the whole world in this third video game–inspired episode following Rebel Bicycle Club (2023).

The club—which includes friends Demelza and Nessa, Captain Honkers the goose, and Mr. Calenick, a pickled medieval knight with a detachable head—gains a new member when Jack arrives on the island (established in previous entries as being in Cornwall) with his white dad and Haitian mom as part of a traveling carnival with several secrets and a rusty old bicycle in serious need of proper tricking out. One of the secrets, it turns out, is that Jack is a descendant of a certain legendary Jack from folklore, and another is that there are giants in caverns below Penfurzy, rendered harmless (for now) by a sleeping spell that is in desperate need of being renewed if they are not to rise and wreak havoc. Can the club members, wielding foam swords and riding wheeled steeds with names like Neon Justice II and Rogue Avenger, find a way into the giants’ cavern before they wake up? Created in conjunction with the Knights and Bikes video game, this volume features both blocky illustrations that reflect the game’s distinctive graphics and a pacey plotline festooned with obstacles, sudden reversals of fortune, magical helpers, daring exploits, and comical banter.

Brisk, bold, and buoyant. (map) (Fantasy adventure. 8-10)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2023

ISBN: 9781728237343

Page Count: 240

Publisher: Sourcebooks Young Readers

Review Posted Online: June 21, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2023

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CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS AND THE TYRANNICAL RETALIATION OF THE TURBO TOILET 2000

From the Captain Underpants series , Vol. 11

Dizzyingly silly.

The famous superhero returns to fight another villain with all the trademark wit and humor the series is known for.

Despite the title, Captain Underpants is bizarrely absent from most of this adventure. His school-age companions, George and Harold, maintain most of the spotlight. The creative chums fool around with time travel and several wacky inventions before coming upon the evil Turbo Toilet 2000, making its return for vengeance after sitting out a few of the previous books. When the good Captain shows up to save the day, he brings with him dynamic action and wordplay that meet the series’ standards. The Captain Underpants saga maintains its charm even into this, the 11th volume. The epic is filled to the brim with sight gags, toilet humor, flip-o-ramas and anarchic glee. Holding all this nonsense together is the author’s good-natured sense of harmless fun. The humor is never gross or over-the-top, just loud and innocuous. Adults may roll their eyes here and there, but youngsters will eat this up just as quickly as they devoured every other Underpants episode.

Dizzyingly silly. (Humor. 8-10)

Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014

ISBN: 978-0-545-50490-4

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014

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ESCAPE FROM BAXTERS' BARN

Ironically, by choosing such a dramatic catalyst, the author weakens the adventure’s impact overall and leaves readers to...

A group of talking farm animals catches wind of the farm owner’s intention to burn the barn (with them in it) for insurance money and hatches a plan to flee.

Bond begins briskly—within the first 10 pages, barn cat Burdock has overheard Dewey Baxter’s nefarious plan, and by Page 17, all of the farm animals have been introduced and Burdock is sharing the terrifying news. Grady, Dewey’s (ever-so-slightly) more principled brother, refuses to go along, but instead of standing his ground, he simply disappears. This leaves the animals to fend for themselves. They do so by relying on their individual strengths and one another. Their talents and personalities match their species, bringing an element of realism to balance the fantasy elements. However, nothing can truly compensate for the bland horror of the premise. Not the growing sense of family among the animals, the serendipitous intervention of an unknown inhabitant of the barn, nor the convenient discovery of an alternate home. Meanwhile, Bond’s black-and-white drawings, justly compared to those of Garth Williams, amplify the sense of dissonance. Charming vignettes and single- and double-page illustrations create a pastoral world into which the threat of large-scale violence comes as a shock.

Ironically, by choosing such a dramatic catalyst, the author weakens the adventure’s impact overall and leaves readers to ponder the awkward coincidences that propel the plot. (Animal fantasy. 8-10)

Pub Date: July 7, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-544-33217-1

Page Count: 256

Publisher: HMH Books

Review Posted Online: March 31, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015

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