Joyfully captures an all-consuming passion for an intriguing niche interest.
Puzzle cubes challenge a cast of determined contenders in a tense national competition.
Twelve-year-old Tyler Gooden loves solving his Rubik’s Cube. After his dad died three years ago, he felt adrift until he found this gift from his father, set aside years before. The mental aerobics and motor dexterity that cube-solving required gave him a sense of focus. So begins the story of Tyler’s determined journey to the national championship, sponsored by Cube-Mania. He can’t afford to attend, but Cube-Mania founder and CEO Victor Chen recognizes his “remarkable ability” and offers a surprise sponsorship. As the competition begins, Tyler meets a crew of fellow cubers, including “cubing prodigy” Eli Newton and his overbearing dad, twin sensations Lizzy and Izzy Peterson, world record holder Dirk Speedman, and the elderly Miles Wizzinski, the first great cuber of the 1980s, whose efforts have resulted in carpal tunnel syndrome. The story’s slightly stilted present-tense language will make readers feel as though they’re reading the novelization of a competition documentary (think The Speed Cubers or the Scrabble-focused Word Wars). Gamers’ backstories combine with play-by-play scenes of puzzles being solved, shocking twists, and some well-earned victories. Colorful graphic novel panel interludes bring to life the drama of gameplay—it’s hard to look away from this delightfully hyperfocused tale. Most characters present white; Tyler is of Filipino descent, the Peterson twins are Black, and Victor Chen is cued Asian.
Joyfully captures an all-consuming passion for an intriguing niche interest. (Fiction/graphic hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593531907
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
File under “laugh riot.”
A rogue spell-check program’s bid to transform all life-forms into that eminently useful office item, the paper clip, touches off a fresh round of lunar lunacy.
Predicated on the entirely reasonable premise that eliminating all spelling and grammar errors everywhere would logically lead to the necessity of exterminating carbon-based life in the universe, this third series entry combines high stakes with daffy banter and daring exploits. CheckMate—a chipper, jumped-up editing program—has invented the Transmogratron, a giant laser that will fulfill its ultimate goals in both the cyber world and “meatspace.” Facing challenges as random as prankster lunar unicorns and a disarmingly motherly Motherboard, scowling First Cat joins a motley crew of diversely carbon- and silicon-based allies, led by the pearlescent Queen of the Moon. They’re in a race to the finish—diverted occasionally by, for instance, a relentlessly punny comic-book interlude featuring a pair of literal and figurative Pool Sharks. They ultimately triumph thanks to teamwork and moxie. Following a celebratory party and toasts to “new friends…and steadfast comrades” (and, of course, “MEOW”), the story’s energetic, brightly colored panels close with a reveal of the next volume. (“I always hate it when comics end by announcing a sequel. SO CRINGE!” declares an authorial stand-in.) It can’t come too soon.
File under “laugh riot.” (Graphic science fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2024
ISBN: 9780063315280
Page Count: 272
Publisher: HarperAlley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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