Labored, but it doesn’t take psychic powers to see how this could be a crowd pleaser.
The author of the Gilda Joyce, Psychic Investigator series piles on the yuks in this slapstick science-fiction opener.
Daniel is outraged that he suddenly has to share a bedroom with Iggy, his way-too-cute (“Why dis not working??!!!! Dis make me so angwy!!!!”), not-quite-toilet-trained little brother. Wider disasters threaten, though, after Iggy swallows new neighbor Alistair’s bug collection and begins to acquire insect powers and characteristics. It seems that Alistair and his parents are actually aliens from the planet Blaron, visiting Earth to gather new varieties of broccoli (which they call “frackenpoy”) because that’s all they can eat. Fortunately, Iggy’s symptoms can be suppressed with a Human Normalizer, which looks like a pacifier. Unfortunately, the Blaronites have another device that combines Daniel’s obnoxious friend Chauncey Morbyd and a cardboard carton into a robot that will eat the entire universe. Despite a bit of sibling reconciliation at the end, the plot, like the cast, is two-dimensional at best. Readers who relish silly names, broccoli jokes, domestic chaos and gross goo of various sorts in their fiction, as well as lots of robots and aliens, though, will definitely have no cause for complaint. Moran’s frequent illustrations range from small views of popeyed cartoon faces to diagrams of DNA molecules and, for some incidents or punch lines, sequential panels.
Labored, but it doesn’t take psychic powers to see how this could be a crowd pleaser. (Science fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3759-4
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fizzy mix of low humor and brisk action, with promise of more of both to come.
Heroic deeds await Isaac after his little sister runs into the school basement and is captured by elves.
Even though their school is a spooky old castle transplanted stone by stone from Germany, Isaac and his two friends, Max and Emma, little suspect that an entire magical kingdom lies beneath—a kingdom run by elves, policed by oversized rats in uniform, and populated by captives who start out human but undergo transformative “weirding.” These revelations await Isaac and sidekicks as they nerve themselves to trail his bossy younger sib, Lily, through a shadowy storeroom and into a tunnel, across a wide lake, and into a city lit by half-human fireflies, where they are cast together into a dungeon. Can they escape before they themselves start changing? Gibson pits his doughty rescuers against such adversaries as an elven monarch who emits truly kingly belches and a once-human jailer with a self-picking nose. Tests of mettle range from a riddle contest to a face-off with the menacing head rat Shelfliver, and a helter-skelter chase finally leads rescuers and rescued back to the aboveground. Plainly, though, there is further rescuing to be done.
A fizzy mix of low humor and brisk action, with promise of more of both to come. (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-62370-255-7
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Capstone Young Readers
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2015
It’s not the first time old Ben has paid our times a call, but it’s funny and free-spirited, with an informational load that...
Antics both instructive and embarrassing ensue after a mysterious package left on their doorstep brings a Founding Father into the lives of two modern children.
Summoned somehow by what looks for all the world like an old-time crystal radio set, Ben Franklin turns out to be an amiable sort. He is immediately taken in hand by 7-year-old Olive for a tour of modern wonders—early versions of which many, from electrical appliances in the kitchen to the Illinois town’s public library and fire department, he justly lays claim to inventing. Meanwhile big brother Nolan, 10, tags along, frantic to return him to his own era before either their divorced mom or snoopy classmate Tommy Tuttle sees him. Fleming, author of Ben Franklin’s Almanac (2003) (and also, not uncoincidentally considering the final scene of this outing, Our Eleanor, 2005), mixes history with humor as the great man dispenses aphorisms and reminiscences through diverse misadventures, all of which end well, before vanishing at last. Following a closing, sequel-cueing kicker (see above) she then separates facts from fancies in closing notes, with print and online leads to more of the former. To go with spot illustrations of the evidently all-white cast throughout the narrative, Fearing incorporates change-of-pace sets of sequential panels for Franklin’s biographical and scientific anecdotes. Final illustrations not seen.
It’s not the first time old Ben has paid our times a call, but it’s funny and free-spirited, with an informational load that adds flavor without weight. (Graphic/fantasy hybrid. 9-11)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-101-93406-7
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
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