A bold, entertaining, and intelligent environmental tale with great emotional resonance—a winner.
In this graphic novel, an adventurous girl and her future self collaborate to save the planet.
At 6 years old, olive-skinned Arianna Theresa Machado, called Mup, has a wonderfully vivid imagination. At home, Mup’s affectionate botanist father supports her love of “the wild places,” promising to take her to them when she’s older. But at school, Mup’s happy confidence runs up against the conventional. Other girls dream only of becoming popular, beautiful teenagers, not explorers who discover dinosaurs—and Mup never wants to grow up if it means turning into that. But after entering a glowing portal to the future, Mup meets her 16-year-old self, now called Arianna, who’s everything she feared; just as disturbing, the Black Dread disease has killed all the plants. There’s hope, though, when Mup’s father discovers a still-green African valley that could hold a cure. He, Arianna, and a stowaway Mup travel in search of that valley, but the villainous White CEO of Leopold Enterprises also wants to find it and exploit its resources. Waasi, a 12-year-old African girl, knows the way, and it’s up to her, the Machados, and a helpful dinosaur to save the last forest, the whole Earth, and Mup’s future. Writing and illustrating her first graphic novel after two conventional YA works and three children’s offerings, Gragg blends a comic-book style with beautifully rendered, richly colored landscapes. Her artwork expressively captures characters’ personalities and uses panels to convey both action and states of mind vividly. The story offers an urgent environmental message but doesn’t seem preachy thanks to the overarching personal question of staying true to yourself. Clever touches abound, such as in-group friendship necklaces and the CEO’s understated connection to King Leopold II of Belgium and his African atrocities.
A bold, entertaining, and intelligent environmental tale with great emotional resonance—a winner.Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-9916269-2-2
Page Count: 282
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Dec. 3, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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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