Mildly amusing, though a sudoku book might be a better investment
The “choose your own adventure” genre gets another reboot in Magaziner’s (Wizardmatch, 2018) newest.
Protagonist Carlos lives in a run-down house with his single mom, who owns a down-and-out private detective agency. When his mom wakes up ill on the morning she is to meet with a wealthy new client, Carlos takes matters into his own hands. Accompanied by his best friend, Eliza, and with her distractible younger brother, Frank, in tow, the amateur sleuth sets off to discover who has been sending death threats to well-heeled widow Guinevere LeCavalier. The adventure is told through first-person narrative rather than the second-person common to the genre, so readers see the story through Carlos’ eyes as they assist in solving puzzles, mazes, and other brain teasers to get to the bottom of the mystery. Pitfalls are everywhere, with over two dozen possible endings, and only a few of them are happy. Most of the endings are sillly and clearly intended to be humorous hyperbole, but the endings that result in financial ruin for Carlos and his mom border on ridicule. Readers who themselves know the anxiety of an unemployed or underemployed parent and the reality of living paycheck to paycheck are unlikely to find much humor in these catastrophes. Carlos is Latinx, while Eliza and Frank are white.
Mildly amusing, though a sudoku book might be a better investment . (Adventure. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267627-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2018
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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
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