Hugely entertaining as well as emotionally moving.
In this novel, a boy gets into even more trouble than usual after encountering a cute (and hungry) alien creature.
Kissmas—a child’s pronunciation of Christmas that stuck—won’t be the same this year. Six months ago, Dexter Duckworth, 11, lost his mother, leaving him, his father, and his 8-year-old brother, Dougal, with a hole in the family: “Not a bad hole, but a big hole. The kind of hole that sneaks up on me late at night when I remember.” Dexter’s science project, a “Cricket Colony,” goes badly awry when he enhances an enclosure with a rock from the forest on which a strange bug seems to have hitched a ride. It’s furry, ravenous, and growing larger all the time. It soon becomes evident that Gobbledy, as he’s dubbed, is an extraterrestrial alien who needs help and protection. A comedy of errors ensues as Dexter tries to avoid getting grounded for life. Anna-Langston, whose middle-grade fiction has won numerous prizes, successfully balances comedy and drama in this latest outing. Dexter’s narrative voice sounds convincingly fifth grade in his sense of humor, but he also expresses thoughtfulness and compassion; the family’s palpable grief and their attempts to restore normality for this first Christmas without their mother are poignant yet understated. Meanwhile, Dexter’s misadventures build upon each other for great comic effect, culminating in a school Winter Extravaganza where his role as Gingerbread Man goes hilariously wrong. As he comments, “Trouble is a plague. Trouble follows fun. Trouble is my mortal enemy.” The alien’s plight, too, is affecting, and the devotion he inspires in the cast reveals the story’s warm heart. Powell, a prolific artist and illustrator, contributes engagingly humorous and skillfully crosshatched drawings.
Hugely entertaining as well as emotionally moving.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68463-067-7
Page Count: 232
Publisher: SparkPress
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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