Lovable and energetic characters power this wonderfully diverting story.
In this installment of Whatever’s middle-grade fantasy series, a tween girl unravels a mysterious past and aims to thwart a villain’s fiendish plot.
Sam, a girl who has experienced the wonders of an alternate magical dimension called the Under-Under World,doesn’t know what to make of the “jelly bubbles” that pop up on the little beach near her home. Each contains an image—one depicts an unknown girl in tears. With help from her great uncle (“Gruncle”), a renowned scientist caring for her and her little brother, Darby, while their guardian aunt is away, Sam learns that these bubbles have somehow captured images from the past. They may be able to tell Sam what exactly happened on the sinking ship in the incident that killed the siblings’ parents years ago. Meanwhile, The Sister, Sam’s enemy from her visits to the Under-Under World (the “most magical place ever”) is on Earth, plotting and spying on Sam. The nefarious woman, who loves jelly donuts and explosions, hopes Sam will lead her to the secret passage to Under-Under (she’s brewing an evil plan that Sam must nip in the bud, as it entails obliterating the Earth aboveground). As in the preceding installments, Whatever’s third series outing shines with a zestful cast: The Sister’s multilayered scheme includes confusing Sam and Gruncle for sheer psychological torment; time-obsessed Gruncle fills the siblings’ home with clocks; and Sam’s Under-Under friend, Boyo, communicates by “wiggling his fingers.” While indisputable peril looms over both the aboveground and Under-Under, humor continues to drive the series. This novel’s villain, for example, isn’t particularly good at snooping, as she leaves copious evidence of her presence including an empty jelly-donut box and the lingering aroma of cyanide (her best-loved fragrance). The author rounds out this tale with educational morsels (linking the bubbles to falling debris from a Ghost Moon consisting of orbiting clouds of dust) and mystery, as Sam vows to solve her parents’ unexplained deaths.
Lovable and energetic characters power this wonderfully diverting story.Pub Date: July 24, 2023
ISBN: 9798852896841
Page Count: 233
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: April 23, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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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