Flashes of wit notwithstanding, the gross is shoveled in with such vigor that even readers who revel in such stuff may weary.
An intrepid lad and his smart-girl best friend repel a pair of particularly putrid pirates in this unbridled farce.
Catching wind of buried treasure near Little Snoring on Sea, twin co-captains Gruesome and Grisly McNasty steer their scabrous bark Rotten Apple shoreward—only to be met by 10-year-old Tat Trout and his classmate Hetty (the latter given to doing six impossible things before breakfast every day). Having already pulled the treasure out of a hole so deep that kangaroos come out, the young folk must not only make shift to keep it away from the pirates, but heroically scotch a further nefarious scheme to sink a boat carrying Tat’s unwitting family. Gardner festoons the narrative with references to leeches, boiled cabbage (“smelled like cats’ pee”) and other revolting foods, buckets full of slime, cautionary warnings to readers and like crowd-pleasing fare. To accompany these, Asquith supplies sight gags like pictures of a “Big Mactopus” (they “taste of brussels sprouts with custard”) and a “horned dilemma,” portraits of the characters (notably, Tat is dark-skinned) and larger cartoon scenes replete with stomach-churning details. In fact the McNasty brothers are last seen churning the stomach of a whale, though sequels already published across the pond suggest that they’ll be back.
Flashes of wit notwithstanding, the gross is shoveled in with such vigor that even readers who revel in such stuff may weary. (Adventure. 9-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-77138-128-4
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2014
A waggish tale with a serious (and timely) theme.
An age-old rivalry is reluctantly put aside when two young vacationers are lost in the wilderness.
Anthropomorphic—in body if definitely not behavior—Dogg Scout Oscar and pampered Molly Hissleton stray from their separate camps, meet by chance in a trackless magic forest, and almost immediately recognize that their only chance of survival, distasteful as the notion may be, lies in calling a truce. Patterson and Grabenstein really work the notion here that cooperation is better than prejudice founded on ignorance and habit, interspersing explicit exchanges on the topic while casting the squabbling pair with complementary abilities that come out as they face challenges ranging from finding food to escaping such predators as a mountain lion and a pack of vicious “weaselboars.” By the time they cross a wide river (on a raft steered by “Old Jim,” an otter whose homespun utterances are generally cribbed from Mark Twain—an uneasy reference) back to civilization, the two are BFFs. But can that friendship survive the return, with all the social and familial pressures to resume the old enmity? A climactic cage-match–style confrontation before a worked-up multispecies audience provides the answer. In the illustrations (not seen in finished form) López plops wide-eyed animal heads atop clothed, more or less human forms and adds dialogue balloons for punchlines.
A waggish tale with a serious (and timely) theme. (Fantasy. 9-11)Pub Date: April 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-41156-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
Epic—in plot, not length—and as wise and wonderful as Gerald Morris’ Arthurian exploits.
Who needs dragons when there are Terrible Lizards to be fought?
Having recklessly boasted to King Arthur and the court that he’d slain 40 dragons, Sir Erec can hardly refuse when Merlin offers him more challenging foes…and so it is that in no time (so to speak), Erec, with bookish Sir Hector, the silent and enigmatic Black Knight, and blustering Sir Bors with his thin but doughty squire, Mel, in tow, are hewing away at fearsome creatures sporting natural armor and weapons every bit as effective as knightly ones. Happily, while all the glorious mashing and bashing leads to awesome feats aplenty—who would suspect that a ravening T. Rex could be decked by a well-placed punch to the jaw?—when the dust settles neither bloodshed nor permanent injury has been dealt to either side. Better yet, not even the stunning revelation that two of the Three Stooges–style bumblers aren’t what they seem (“Anyone else here a girl?”) keeps the questers from developing into a well-knit team capable of repeatedly saving one another’s bacon. Phelan endows the all-white human cast with finely drawn, eloquently expressive faces but otherwise works in a loose, movement-filled style, pitting his clanking crew against an almost nonstop onslaught of toothy monsters in a monochrome mix of single scenes and occasional wordless sequential panels.
Epic—in plot, not length—and as wise and wonderful as Gerald Morris’ Arthurian exploits. (Graphic/fantasy hybrid. 9-11)Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-268623-7
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
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