It’s etiquette versus exigency in 19th-century Washington Territory. Jane Peck wasn’t always a lady; until the age of 11, she was the very picture of a hoyden, terrorizing the neighborhood with rotten apples and manure pats. But prodded by the censure of the ladylike Sally Biddle, and with the encouragement of her physician father’s apprentice, William of the dazzling smile, she enrolls in Miss Hepplewhite’s Young Ladies Academy. In the space of four years, she goes from being an independent and opinionated, if messy, girl to a very proper young lady, much to the dismay of her independent and opinionated Papa. But when she sails from Philadelphia to Shoalwater Bay to join William, she finds that he has gone, and she must make a place for herself among rough mountain men and the Chinook Indians, none of whom give a hoot for the accomplishments of a young lady. Holm (Our Only May Amelia, 1999) gives readers an original, likable narrator in Jane and a good-humored, rip-roaring romantic adventure, with colorful secondary characters to spare. These include Mr. James Swan, who left his family in Boston to pursue anthropological study (an actual historical figure), and the blue-eyed Jehu, the sailor who encourages Jane to revise her notion of proper young ladyhood. A couple of subplots are left hanging or seem out of place: the obvious decline in Jane’s father’s health goes unresolved, and the introduction of the ghost of Jane’s traveling companion does little to further the plot. An unfortunately young-looking cover illustration will limit the usefulness of this otherwise highly enjoyable historical romp. (author’s note) (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-06-028738-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish.
The dreary prospect of spending a lifetime making caskets instead of wonderful inventions prompts a young orphan to snatch up his little sister and flee. Where? To the circus, of course.
Fortunately or otherwise, John and 6-year-old Page join up with Boz—sometime human cannonball for the seedy Wandering Wayfarers and a “vertically challenged” trickster with a fantastic gift for sowing chaos. Alas, the budding engineer barely has time to settle in to begin work on an experimental circus wagon powered by chicken poop and dubbed (with questionable forethought) the Autopsy. The hot pursuit of malign and indomitable Great-Aunt Beauregard, the Coggins’ only living relative, forces all three to leave the troupe for further flights and misadventures. Teele spins her adventure around a sturdy protagonist whose love for his little sister is matched only by his fierce desire for something better in life for them both and tucks in an outstanding supporting cast featuring several notably strong-minded, independent women (Page, whose glare “would kill spiders dead,” not least among them). Better yet, in Boz she has created a scene-stealing force of nature, a free spirit who’s never happier than when he’s stirring up mischief. A climactic clutch culminating in a magnificently destructive display of fireworks leaves the Coggin sibs well-positioned for bright futures. (Illustrations not seen.)
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish. (Adventure. 11-13)Pub Date: April 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234510-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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