Discusses an important subject with heart and humor but struggles with uneven presentation.
Can a werewolf-filled fifth grade Shakespeare production restore a boy’s relationship with his older brother?
Nothing seems to be going right for Angus Gettlefinger and his family these days. That’s why he’s determined to do a werewolf version of Hamlet for his class legacy project. With the help of friends and inspiration from bygone movie stars, Angus is sure that when 17-year-old Liam sees this play, his brother will realize that sneaking out to drink and do drugs makes him act like a werewolf. As Angus tries to hang on to his relationship with Liam and make his theatrical dreams come true, he also realizes that his parents’ financial woes threaten their family home in a Los Angeles suburb. Inspired by the author’s struggles with her son’s addiction, this contemporary story relies heavily on Shakespearean references, as well as knowledge of early- to mid-20th-century pop culture. Along with Angus’ first-person narration, scripts in which Angus converses with his idols, including Lon Chaney and Charlie Chaplin, provide insight into his thoughts and feelings. Middle-grade readers may have difficulty connecting with this content, however. The heart and humor of Angus’ story feels genuine, even when the plot and character development come across as stilted and one-dimensional. Main characters present white.
Discusses an important subject with heart and humor but struggles with uneven presentation. (biographies, citations, author’s note, resources) (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781623544331
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Charlesbridge Moves
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
A solid debut: fluent, funny and eminently sequel-worthy.
Inventively tweaking a popular premise, Jensen pits two Incredibles-style families with superpowers against each other—until a new challenge rises to unite them.
The Johnsons invariably spit at the mere mention of their hated rivals, the Baileys. Likewise, all Baileys habitually shake their fists when referring to the Johnsons. Having long looked forward to getting a superpower so that he too can battle his clan’s nemeses, Rafter Bailey is devastated when, instead of being able to fly or something else cool, he acquires the “power” to strike a match on soft polyester. But when hated classmate Juanita Johnson turns up newly endowed with a similarly bogus power and, against all family tradition, they compare notes, it becomes clear that something fishy is going on. Both families regard themselves as the heroes and their rivals as the villains. Someone has been inciting them to fight each other. Worse yet, that someone has apparently developed a device that turns real superpowers into silly ones. Teaching themselves on the fly how to get past their prejudice and work together, Rafter, his little brother, Benny, and Juanita follow a well-laid-out chain of clues and deductions to the climactic discovery of a third, genuinely nefarious family, the Joneses, and a fiendishly clever scheme to dispose of all the Baileys and Johnsons at once. Can they carry the day?
A solid debut: fluent, funny and eminently sequel-worthy. (Adventure. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-06-220961-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
On equal footing with a garden-variety potato.
The new kid in school endures becoming the school mascot.
Ben Hardy has never cared for potatoes, and this distaste has become a barrier to adjusting to life in his new Idaho town. His school’s mascot is the Spud, and after a series of misfortunes, Ben is enlisted to don the potato costume and cheer on his school’s team. Ben balances his duties as a life-sized potato against his desperate desire to hide the fact that he’s the dork in the suit. After all, his cute new crush, Jayla, wouldn’t be too impressed to discover Ben’s secret. The ensuing novel is a fairly boilerplate middle–grade narrative: snarky tween protagonist, the crush that isn’t quite what she seems, and a pair of best friends that have more going on than our hero initially believes. The author keeps the novel moving quickly, pushing forward with witty asides and narrative momentum so fast that readers won’t really mind that the plot’s spine is one they’ve encountered many times before. Once finished, readers will feel little resonance and move on to the next book in their to-read piles, but in the moment the novel is pleasant enough. Ben, Jayla, and Ben’s friend Hunter are white while Ellie, Ben’s other good pal, is Latina.
On equal footing with a garden-variety potato. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: March 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-11866-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
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