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THE GRAVITY THIEF

A superb young duo leads this smart and consistently diverting fantasy.

Two gifted tweens’ investigation into stolen paintings pits them against a villain constructing a chaos-generating machine in this third installment of a middle-grade series.

Someone has purloined the Vermeer painting The Music Lesson from the Emily Sears Museum in Boston. During her class field trip, 12-year-old Lucy Nightingale lingers at the crime scene and hears a boy crying—a ghost, perhaps. Sounds like a case for SLARP; through Sam and Lucy’s Anomalies Research Project, she and her pal Sam Winter look into “unusual happenings.” Lucy returns to the museum after hours and learns the apparent ghost is Peter, a young boy from the stolen painting. Speaking to other “Visitors” from the museum’s artworks, she decides to recover the work, as without it, Peter’s lamprolite (essentially his life force) will fade quickly. It seems thieves have been regularly taking Vermeer paintings, all for a mastermind who wants the shapes hidden within the art. They’re the key to building a world-changing machine, which the mastermind wants to use for manipulating gravity and sending things, like entire countries, into a black hole. As this villain is associated with the Konference, “a secret society of geniuses” that’s initiating Sam, the tweens have a chance to thwart the evil plan. Lodge’s brisk fantasy is delightful thanks to its two investigating friends. They complement each other—“field agent” Lucy handles physical tasks that “unathletic” Sam avoids—and are never condescending. The story touches on a host of scientific concepts that characters usually comprehensively explain. Moreover, there are intermittent photographs of superlative art—not solely Vermeer’s—along with Hilaire’s bold, colorful, cartoon-style illustrations. Readers new to the series may be taken aback by the abrupt appearances of supernatural elements, from Lucy and Sam’s telepathy to the latter’s asserting that Quetzals, his “super phone” invention, “aren’t dependent on earth technology.” But that should prompt readers’ interest in this series’ preceding installments.

A superb young duo leads this smart and consistently diverting fantasy. (glossary, author bio)

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 230

Publisher: Manuscript

Review Posted Online: July 8, 2020

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THE WILD ROBOT PROTECTS

From the Wild Robot series , Vol. 3

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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CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS AND THE TERRIFYING RETURN OF TIPPY TINKLETROUSERS

From the Captain Underpants series , Vol. 9

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

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