For all its dystopian setting, this satisfying trilogy closer is full of pluck
The postdiluvian Flooded Earth trilogy concludes as it began, with high-seas derring-do.
Ever since Will and Annalie’s father, Spinner, vanished at the onset of The Flooded Earth (2018), they’ve been searching for him along with their friends Essie and Pod (and of course Graham, their cybernetically enhanced talking parrot. Their dystopian world, flooded not from climate change but due to the hubris of weather-controlling scientists, is ruled by the wicked Admiralty. Spinner was studying the work of the scientists whose research created the Flood, and the Admiralty will stop at nothing to capture him—because they want to use his research to create weapons. The children must fight not only the Admiralty, but the many dangers that dot their world’s coastlines and oceans, beginning with a fight with pirates at the onset of this adventure. Along the way they rescue Pod’s young enslaved sister, cross the dangerous Outer Ocean, escape from deadly shadow whales and wild dogs, and repeatedly escape from the wicked Admiralty commander. And perhaps, they discover, not everyone in the Admiralty is wicked; once, “they were a force for good in the world.” If only the good members of the Admiralty can be convinced to see the horrors of the refugee camps, perhaps things can change. Race is unspecified, though there is some indication of whiteness among the Admiralty and the wealthy.
For all its dystopian setting, this satisfying trilogy closer is full of pluck . (Science fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Nov. 28, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-77278-099-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Pajama Press
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
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
© 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.
