This rowdy adventure is sure to be a crowd pleaser
When a wicked wizard threatens her city, Claudette decides it’s once again her job to save the day.
Impetuous young Claudette is still determined to become a warrior like her father, Augustine, the heroic blacksmith of the town of Mont Petit Pierre. Buoyed by the success of her first adventure (Giants Beware!, 2012), Claudette is completely undeterred when her family and friends tell her that fighting the villainous Grombach is a task for adults. Fortunately, neither her little brother, Gaston, nor her best friend, Princess Marie, will let Claudette sally forth alone to confront the dragon Azra the Atrocious, who long ago swallowed the powerful sword that is the key to defeating Grombach. Rosado’s expressive art, with its heavy lines and cartoonishly exaggerated figures, highlights the humor of Aguirre’s script, and the clear, often cinematic paneling makes the gargoyle-smacking, dragon-bashing action easy to follow. The warm palette, courtesy of colorist Novak, helps bring the otherwise generic medieval setting to life. While the funny, fast-paced story will draw in readers, it is the trio’s winning friendship and teamwork that will leave fans clamoring for a sequel. Clever Marie and little master chef–turned-swordsmith Gaston each get their chance to shine, and it’s impossible not to root for scruffy, hotheaded Claudette.
This rowdy adventure is sure to be a crowd pleaser . (Graphic fantasy. 7-12)Pub Date: May 12, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-59643-878-1
Page Count: 160
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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
Thought-provoking and charming.
A sophisticated robot—with the capacity to use senses of sight, hearing, and smell—is washed to shore on an island, the only robot survivor of a cargo of 500.
When otters play with her protective packaging, the robot is accidently activated. Roz, though without emotions, is intelligent and versatile. She can observe and learn in service of both her survival and her principle function: to help. Brown links these basic functions to the kind of evolution Roz undergoes as she figures out how to stay dry and intact in her wild environment—not easy, with pine cones and poop dropping from above, stormy weather, and a family of cranky bears. She learns to understand and eventually speak the language of the wild creatures (each species with its different “accent”). An accident leaves her the sole protector of a baby goose, and Roz must ask other creatures for help to shelter and feed the gosling. Roz’s growing connection with her environment is sweetly funny, reminiscent of Randall Jarrell’s The Animal Family. At every moment Roz’s actions seem plausible and logical yet surprisingly full of something like feeling. Robot hunters with guns figure into the climax of the story as the outside world intrudes. While the end to Roz’s benign and wild life is startling and violent, Brown leaves Roz and her companions—and readers—with hope.
Thought-provoking and charming. (Science fiction/fantasy. 7-11)Pub Date: April 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-316-38199-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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