Next book

GUM LUCK

From the Gumazing Gum Girl! series , Vol. 2

Good, sticky fun.

Gum Girl is back in this second adventure.

Since her last adventures, Gum Girl (aka Gabby Gomez) has been celebrated as a hero by everyone. Everyone, that is, except the people who matter most: the members of her own loving, Latino family, who don’t know she’s Gum Girl! As Gabby get ready to reveal her secret identity, her dentist dad despairs about the tooth problems that Gum Girl’s poor example will inspire. Poor Gabby’s troubles worsen—she may have a cavity from all that gum! But even that’s not the end of Gabby’s problems: a gum-hating “mysterious masked man” is plotting to bring Gum Girl down. Meanwhile, when Gum Girl isn’t busy saving the day, Gabby is busy running from white bully Natalie, whose depiction as a large girl disappoints. Many school-, cavity-, and gum-related adventures later, Gum Girl faces off with the “mysterious masked man” and his giant robot, which she, unsurprisingly, vanquishes. Most illustrations are black and white, with energetic, bubble-gum-pink accents. The plot is fairly shallow and sometimes ridiculous, but it is aware of at least some of that silliness, which perhaps redeems it a bit of the lack of depth. Short chapters and frequent, graphic novel–esque illustrations make this a shoo-in for reluctant readers, and the text is punctuated by the occasional italicized word in Spanish.

Good, sticky fun. (Fantasy. 6-10)

Pub Date: June 13, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-4231-6117-2

Page Count: 160

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017

Next book

HOW TO CATCH A GINGERBREAD MAN

From the How To Catch… series

A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound.

The titular cookie runs off the page at a bookstore storytime, pursued by young listeners and literary characters.

Following on 13 previous How To Catch… escapades, Wallace supplies sometimes-tortured doggerel and Elkerton, a set of helter-skelter cartoon scenes. Here the insouciant narrator scampers through aisles, avoiding a series of elaborate snares set by the racially diverse young storytime audience with help from some classic figures: “Alice and her mad-hat friends, / as a gift for my unbirthday, / helped guide me through the walls of shelves— / now I’m bound to find my way.” The literary helpers don’t look like their conventional or Disney counterparts in the illustrations, but all are clearly identified by at least a broad hint or visual cue, like the unnamed “wizard” who swoops in on a broom to knock over a tower labeled “Frogwarts.” Along with playing a bit fast and loose with details (“Perhaps the boy with the magic beans / saved me with his cow…”) the author discards his original’s lip-smacking climax to have the errant snack circling back at last to his book for a comfier sort of happily-ever-after.

A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound. (Picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-7282-0935-7

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland

Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021

Next book

CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS AND THE TYRANNICAL RETALIATION OF THE TURBO TOILET 2000

From the Captain Underpants series , Vol. 11

Dizzyingly silly.

The famous superhero returns to fight another villain with all the trademark wit and humor the series is known for.

Despite the title, Captain Underpants is bizarrely absent from most of this adventure. His school-age companions, George and Harold, maintain most of the spotlight. The creative chums fool around with time travel and several wacky inventions before coming upon the evil Turbo Toilet 2000, making its return for vengeance after sitting out a few of the previous books. When the good Captain shows up to save the day, he brings with him dynamic action and wordplay that meet the series’ standards. The Captain Underpants saga maintains its charm even into this, the 11th volume. The epic is filled to the brim with sight gags, toilet humor, flip-o-ramas and anarchic glee. Holding all this nonsense together is the author’s good-natured sense of harmless fun. The humor is never gross or over-the-top, just loud and innocuous. Adults may roll their eyes here and there, but youngsters will eat this up just as quickly as they devoured every other Underpants episode.

Dizzyingly silly. (Humor. 8-10)

Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014

ISBN: 978-0-545-50490-4

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014

Close Quickview