A peppily paced adventure yarn sure to delight fans of the franchise, both old and new
Based on Poptropica, Jeff Kinney's (of Diary of a Wimpy Kid fame) online role-playing game, this graphic-novel spinoff envisions three friends who find themselves marooned on a mysterious island.
One fateful day, Asian Mya, white Oliver, and Latino Jorge find their hot air balloon purposefully steered into a rough patch of weather by its rogue captain, Octavian. The group crash-lands on a strange jungle island, which they quickly learn is populated by odd and often dangerous beings and creatures, such as horn-helmeted Vikings and vicious saber-toothed tigers. The trio discovers that they are in possession of a magical map that follows their commands. However the inhabitants of the island—including the fearsome Viking leader Erik the Red—are hunting them, and Octavian, who was separated from them after the crash, wants his map back. Fans of the online game will immediately recognize the wide-eyed, minimally detailed characters and the lush island scenes of Poptropica, although those without any prior knowledge should be able to jump right in without any alienation. Bright, animated colors and zippy cartoonlike action make for an easily accessible first offering that provides just enough exposition to hook young readers and keep them seeking out subsequent adventures.
A peppily paced adventure yarn sure to delight fans of the franchise, both old and new . (Graphic adventure/fantasy. 6-12)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2067-3
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound.
The titular cookie runs off the page at a bookstore storytime, pursued by young listeners and literary characters.
Following on 13 previous How To Catch… escapades, Wallace supplies sometimes-tortured doggerel and Elkerton, a set of helter-skelter cartoon scenes. Here the insouciant narrator scampers through aisles, avoiding a series of elaborate snares set by the racially diverse young storytime audience with help from some classic figures: “Alice and her mad-hat friends, / as a gift for my unbirthday, / helped guide me through the walls of shelves— / now I’m bound to find my way.” The literary helpers don’t look like their conventional or Disney counterparts in the illustrations, but all are clearly identified by at least a broad hint or visual cue, like the unnamed “wizard” who swoops in on a broom to knock over a tower labeled “Frogwarts.” Along with playing a bit fast and loose with details (“Perhaps the boy with the magic beans / saved me with his cow…”) the author discards his original’s lip-smacking climax to have the errant snack circling back at last to his book for a comfier sort of happily-ever-after.
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-0935-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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