McNeill’s storytelling skills shine in this witty, delightful story about the power of imagination and dreaming.
Two worlds collide with dire consequences in McNeill’s debut.
At the heart of this story are two questions: who are you, and where do you come from? As a baby (a very unusual, almost inhuman baby), Max suddenly and inexplicably appeared in this world. Around the same time, people around the globe started disappearing, leaving nothing behind but the clothes they stood in. Now a teenager, if Max can answer these two questions, he can help stop the Vanishings—and more importantly, find his parents. While the world’s top scientists haven’t been able to figure out why the Vanishings happen, Boris, a scientist with an interesting past, and Mrs. Jeffers, one of the Forest Folk, know the answers lie within the Beginning Woods—a world like this one, “minus science and plus magic”—and with Max’s mysterious origins. With their guidance, Max journeys to the Beginning Woods, facing its dangerous wilderness, each obstacle bringing him closer to finding himself. Beautifully written and filled with details designed to tickle the imagination, Max’s story leisurely unfolds. McNeill introduces a surreal world in which whimsical characters, including a book-loving wind giant and a horrid witch who likes to steal color, seem completely at home. The novel is geared toward a younger audience, but older readers will be better able to appreciate some of the more mature themes and content. Max is pale-skinned.
McNeill’s storytelling skills shine in this witty, delightful story about the power of imagination and dreaming. (Fantasy. 10-adult)Pub Date: Jan. 9, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5107-2290-3
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
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
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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