Projected to run through four more volumes, the storyline doesn’t advance much here—but the quick pace, unresolved issues...
McMann builds her newly minted mage’s self-confidence, firms up some emotional hookups and pitches her burgeoning cast into a series of rescues in this middle volume.
The story opens with a crisis carried over from the previous episode and closes with a sudden attack by parties unknown. In between, Alex Stowe solves a riddle left by founding wizard Marcus Today to restore the Unwanteds’ magic school of Artimé, then leads an expedition of magical squirrelicorns, origami dragons and other constructs, along with the giant, flying, stone cheetah Simber, to Warbler Island to rescue imprisoned fellow students Samheed and Lani. Meanwhile, Alex is also bumbling his way through a growing attachment to Sky (who makes his heart “swish”) while his evil Wanted twin, Aaron, is shakily usurping the office of high priest in neighboring Quill. Readers who aren’t fresh on the content of the two preceding volumes will struggle to keep all the characters distinct, but the author chucks in comical byplay and even vomit jokes to keep things from getting too serious, and she breaks the tale into dozens of short chapters to goose up the action.
Projected to run through four more volumes, the storyline doesn’t advance much here—but the quick pace, unresolved issues and Hogwarts-ian setting will keep the audience Wanting more. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4424-5845-1
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: May 29, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
