Animal lovers transitioning from middle grade to YA will find a lot to enjoy here.
Kid detectives find themselves mixed up in 10 interconnected mysteries.
Native Briton Kat Wolfe and her American friend, Harper Lamb, daughters of a veterinarian and a paleontologist, respectively, feel fully equipped to take on a mystery or two—after all, they’ve done it before (Kat Wolfe Investigates, 2018). But this new one proves to be a little more complicated—they count at least 10, many pertaining to endangered and extinct (and maybe fantastical) creatures, from bluefin tunas to dinosaurs. Is the new fossil unearthed in their Dorset, England, town a dinosaur or a dragon? Why are two Hollywood stars interested in it, and why won’t they pay Kat for all the petsitting she’s doing for their Pomeranian? What might Kat’s grandfather, Britain’s minister of defense, have to do with it all? Amazingly, all 10 mysteries do intertwine, though it takes some extraordinary strokes of luck along with Kat’s commendable sleuthing skills. St John makes some missteps with the American characters, using a lot more British language patterns and words than seems plausible for people who didn’t grow up there. Adult characters are silly enough that the kids get to be the heroes of the story, but they’re not so buffoonish that they’ll insult the intelligence of the characters or readers. Kat presents white while brown-skinned Harper is of Cuban descent, and their community reflects a vigorously diverse England.
Animal lovers transitioning from middle grade to YA will find a lot to enjoy here. (Mystery. 10-14)Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-374-30961-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019
Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious.
If you made a recording to be heard by the aliens who found the iPod, what would you record?
For 11-year-old Alex Petroski, it's easy. He records everything. He records the story of how he travels to New Mexico to a rocket festival with his dog, Carl Sagan, and his rocket. He records finding out that a man with the same name and birthday as his dead father has an address in Las Vegas. He records eating at Johnny Rockets for the first time with his new friends, who are giving him a ride to find his dead father (who might not be dead!), and losing Carl Sagan in the wilds of Las Vegas, and discovering he has a half sister. He even records his own awful accident. Cheng delivers a sweet, soulful debut novel with a brilliant, refreshing structure. His characters manage to come alive through the “transcript” of Alex’s iPod recording, an odd medium that sounds like it would be confusing but really works. Taking inspiration from the Voyager Golden Record released to space in 1977, Alex, who explains he has “light brown skin,” records all the important moments of a journey that takes him from a family of two to a family of plenty.
Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-18637-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016
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
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