Despite its Wimpy Kid–esque style, this uneven entry may leave comic-diary fans echoing a lukewarm movie review within it:...
In the sequel to Skye’s dystopian A Lame New World (2018), awkward “semi-superheroes” hatch a plan to save their school from its nefarious secretary—again.
Thanks to mutant spider bites, Tip can mentally activate machines; Mindy can damage “almost anything” by clapping; Xen emits destructive belches; and glowing-eyed Owen hears distant sounds “like a freak” but struggles to hear up close. Having established “a little street cred,” the League of Average and Mediocre Entities must thwart retirement-hungry Darth Susan’s latest convoluted scheme to close Otto Waddle Jr. High Government Outpost. Occasional political satire, with President Flake heading an authoritarian government from the Blight House, alternates with self-deprecating humor and copious, clunky puns and parodies. Readers wanting laughs will either giggle or groan (“There was trouble afoot, and afoot trouble is almost as bad as abutt trouble”); those seeking character depth won’t find it in Tip’s frequently expository narration or his friends’ plot-driven dialogue. However, some readers might find zany catharsis for school woes as LAME confronts bullies; geek and gender stereotypes; farcically misanthropic faculty; and gleefully evil Darth Susan, who totes a tyrant-quoting “daily cruel-planner.” Comic-style illustrations continue the characters’ dialogue—and their puns. Mindy and Owen are depicted as kids of color, and Tip and Xen present white.
Despite its Wimpy Kid–esque style, this uneven entry may leave comic-diary fans echoing a lukewarm movie review within it: “[It’s] okay, all right, fine, acceptable, and whatever.” (Graphic/fantasy hybrid. 9-12)Pub Date: April 30, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-62779-941-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2019
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride.
Zipping back and forth in time atop outsized robo–bell bottoms, mad inventor Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) legs his way to center stage in this slightly less-labored continuation of episode 9.
The action commences after a rambling recap and a warning not to laugh or smile on pain of being forced to read Sarah Plain and Tall. Pilkey first sends his peevish protagonist back a short while to save the Earth (destroyed in the previous episode), then on to various prehistoric eras in pursuit of George, Harold and the Captain. It’s all pretty much an excuse for many butt jokes, dashes of off-color humor (“Tippy pressed the button on his Freezy-Beam 4000, causing it to rise from the depths of his Robo-Pants”), a lengthy wordless comic and two tussles in “Flip-o-rama.” Still, the chase kicks off an ice age, the extinction of the dinosaurs and the Big Bang (here the Big “Ka-Bloosh!”). It ends with a harrowing glimpse of what George and Harold would become if they decided to go straight. The author also chucks in a poopy-doo-doo song with musical notation (credited to Albert P. Einstein) and plenty of ink-and-wash cartoon illustrations to crank up the ongoing frenzy.
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-17536-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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