Breathless adventures in richly imagined settings—an entrancing sequel.
A teenager’s mission to help distressed magical creatures takes her into dangerous places and deadly situations in this folk tale–infused sequel to Once There Was (2023).
The stakes rise considerably this time around: Over the course of encounters with eldritch supernatural beings and a reclusive Persian cousin of (as it turns out) uncertain reliability, Marjan Dastani, now 16, learns that a legendary bird that brings stories to the world is about to be reborn. As a hatchling, it will be vulnerable to foes—notably the Fells, a ruthless organization of magical animal traffickers that is, to Marjan’s deep disgust, her main employer. Interspersing his chapters with fragmentary folk tales featuring orphans, quests, monsters, the titular bird, and hints of profound truths, Monsef sends his rousingly intense and sometimes difficult protagonist all over the map, from Berkeley to Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro, and remotest Finland. Hoping to find and protect the Bird, Marjan embarks on a headlong series of tests, betrayals, reversals, revelations, and confrontations. Better yet, along with dishing up a diverse human cast linked by refreshingly nuanced relationships, the author endows the supernatural being with subtle and surprising natures, abilities, and agendas. “The fae are fickle,” says one character. “One day they sing you the sweetest song. The next day they eat your cat.” Even jaded fantasy readers won’t be able to help but be beguiled.
Breathless adventures in richly imagined settings—an entrancing sequel. (source notes) (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781665928533
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: today
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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