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PIP BARTLETT'S GUIDE TO UNICORN TRAINING

From the Pip Bartlett series , Vol. 2

A resolutely but not obnoxiously feel-good episode with well-merited just deserts all round.

Pip, who can talk to magical animals, runs into both a major challenge and a mystery at the Triple Trident show.

Pip is naturally over the moon when the large annual gathering of mythological creatures comes to her Georgia town. But the discovery that Regent Maximus, the scene-stealing unicorn first met in Pip Bartlett’s Guide to Magical Beasts (2015), has been entered in a competition presents her with a real poser: can she find ways to keep the hilariously skittish animal from fleeing the ring in blind panic and maybe even put in a good showing? Keeping to their avowed intentions, the co-authors trot in one adorable traditional or newly minted beast after another, from baby unicorns (or as they put it: “Baby. Unicorns”) to the sugar-loving greater rainbow mink—which produces candy-scented (but not -flavored) poo—and various occasionally invisible glimmerbeasts like the crested curly woo. All are illustrated and provided with descriptive profiles. Though so free of villains, rivals, or even momentary friction between characters that a mysterious vandal who cuts off unicorn tails turns out to have worthy reasons, the story is rescued from blandness by its humor and its uniformly good-natured multispecies cast. Pip looks white on the cover; her Latino friends Tomas and Marisol are the only characters with specific ethnic markers.

A resolutely but not obnoxiously feel-good episode with well-merited just deserts all round. (Fantasy. 8-11)

Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-545-70929-3

Page Count: 193

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: Dec. 25, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2017

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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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