A marginally spooky tale that never finds its sea legs.
An afternoon sail takes a mystical turn when a storm hits, leaving three siblings dangerously stranded.
Eleven-year-old twins Jonah and Emma crew a sailboat captained by their older brother, William, on a familiar cross-bay trip. The day begins as it usually does, with the twins bickering, but when Emma’s prized conch shell is lost to the sea, magical forces are awakened. A storm strikes, landing the battered craft and crew on a mysterious shore where a terrible mermaid queen holds sway over a horde of bewitched ships’ figureheads and zombie pirates. When Jonah and William are both captured, it is up to Emma and her savior, Finn, to save her brothers, defeat the evil queen, and set the enchanted figureheads free. Creepy, filled with peril, and saturated with sea lore, this fifth installment in the Weird Stories Gone Wrong series features a variation on the sea tale. Unfortunately, while the lesson that bad things can happen when siblings fight is strong, the amalgamation of flat characters and a disjointed plot fails to provoke any genuine dread. Diversity is limited to the magical variety, with humans belonging to the white default. A brief glimpse into the original inspiration for the tale along with scattered illustrations and a glossary of seafaring terms provides context.
A marginally spooky tale that never finds its sea legs. (Supernatural adventure. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4597-4106-5
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Dundurn
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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