Even if the sheer profusion of details nearly overwhelms the story at moments, the pacing and plotting are robustly...
A race to locate a powerful receptacle of terrible dreams puts Ivy and her compatriots in danger underground following the events of series opener The Crooked Sixpence (2017).
In the vast belowground market called Lundinor, humans and races of the dead engage in the buying and selling of a variety of objects. Ivy and her brother, Seb, and their friend Valian (his search for his missing sister set aside in this sequel) attempt to locate the Jar of Shadows before the nefarious Selena Grimes finds it to deploy for her own wretched purposes. The trio must stay a step ahead of Grimes and her scary associate, a sinister shape-shifter called Jack-in-the-Green. The technology in Lundinor has an unusual source: Bits of human souls cause items that in our world would be quite ordinary to work as they do in this place, providing light, mapping, music, virtual reality, and more. The result is both intriguing and often amusing. The jar is one of five valuable and old objects that make up the Great Uncommon Good: a hidden collection that contains possibilities for good—and evil. Bell’s setting and worldbuilding are marvelously inventive and diverting, with creepy and sinister villains and occasional kindness and friendship that will feel pleasantly familiar. Ivy, Seb, and Selena present white; Valian has light-brown skin.
Even if the sheer profusion of details nearly overwhelms the story at moments, the pacing and plotting are robustly energetic, and the inventive momentum and intrigue keep the pages turning. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-553-49847-9
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel.
Sure signs that the creative wells are running dry at last, the Captain’s ninth, overstuffed outing both recycles a villain (see Book 4) and offers trendy anti-bullying wish fulfillment.
Not that there aren’t pranks and envelope-pushing quips aplenty. To start, in an alternate ending to the previous episode, Principal Krupp ends up in prison (“…a lot like being a student at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School, except that the prison had better funding”). There, he witnesses fellow inmate Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) escape in a giant Robo-Suit (later reduced to time-traveling trousers). The villain sets off after George and Harold, who are in juvie (“not much different from our old school…except that they have library books here.”). Cut to five years previous, in a prequel to the whole series. George and Harold link up in kindergarten to reduce a quartet of vicious bullies to giggling insanity with a relentless series of pranks involving shaving cream, spiders, effeminate spoof text messages and friendship bracelets. Pilkey tucks both topical jokes and bathroom humor into the cartoon art, and ups the narrative’s lexical ante with terms like “pharmaceuticals” and “theatrical flair.” Unfortunately, the bullies’ sad fates force Krupp to resign, so he’s not around to save the Earth from being destroyed later on by Talking Toilets and other invaders…
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-17534-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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