Foolish fun that also exercises the gray matter.
Can kids with superpowers solve mysterious occurrences around the school?
As the story opens, habitual troublemakers Arturo Denton and Liz Ardinvale find themselves in Principal Webb’s office once again. She sends them to help cranky science teacher Mr. Crust clean the animal cages in the lab. When a strange device zaps them with super electrotransfer rays, they both begin to display super animal powers, and after swearing them in as animal-powered superheroes, Principal Webb enlists their help to search the school for missing items. Now Hamster Boy and Chameleon Girl, they follow a trail of destruction to the lair of The Hermit—discovering that Mr. Crust had used the ray on himself and a hermit crab! Can the intrepid superkids use their new powers to save the school (and maybe the world)? Ginns and Stevens offer another very silly and puzzle-filled stand-alone adventure in the ongoing Puzzlooies! series. Sixteen puzzles of various types punctuate the tale, with answers offered at the close (some puzzle solutions don’t show how the answer was derived). There are mazes, word searches, and even ones that require cutting up a page of the book to build a solution. A break in the center offers a smattering of facts about superheroes and animals as well as some jokes. Terrana-Hollis’ grayscale cartoons depict Liz as Black and Arturo ambiguously; the Latinx heritage suggested by his given name goes unexplored.
Foolish fun that also exercises the gray matter. (Adventure. 6-11)Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-525-57214-5
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
We challenge anyone to read this and keep a straight face.
Four misunderstood villains endeavor to turn over a new leaf…or a new rap sheet in Blabey's frenzied romp.
As readers open the first page of this early chapter book, Mr. Wolf is right there to greet them, bemoaning his reputation. "Just because I've got BIG POINTY TEETH and RAZOR-SHARP CLAWS and I occasionally like to dress up like an OLD LADY, that doesn't mean… / … I'm a BAD GUY." To prove this very fact, Mr. Wolf enlists three equally slandered friends into the Good Guys Club: Mr. Snake (aka the Chicken Swallower), Mr. Piranha (aka the Butt Biter), and Mr. Shark (aka Jaws). After some convincing from Mr. Wolf, the foursome sets off determined to un-smirch their names (and reluctantly curbing their appetites). Although these predators find that not everyone is ready to be at the receiving end of their helpful efforts, they use all their Bad Guy know-how to manage a few hilarious good deeds. Blabey has hit the proverbial nail on the head, kissed it full on the mouth, and handed it a stick of Acme dynamite. With illustrations that startle in their manic comedy and deadpan direct address and with a narrative that follows four endearingly sardonic characters trying to push past (sometimes successfully) their fear-causing natures, this book instantly joins the classic ranks of Captain Underpants and The Stinky Cheese Man.
We challenge anyone to read this and keep a straight face. (Fiction. 7-11)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-91240-2
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Epic lunacy.
Will extragalactic rats eat the moon?
Can a cybernetic toenail clipper find a worthy purpose in the vast universe? Will the first feline astronaut ever get a slice of pizza? Read on. Reworked from the Live Cartoon series of homespun video shorts released on Instagram in 2020 but retaining that “we’re making this up as we go” quality, the episodic tale begins with the electrifying discovery that our moon is being nibbled away. Off blast one strong, silent, furry hero—“Meow”—and a stowaway robot to our nearest celestial neighbor to hook up with the imperious Queen of the Moon and head toward the dark side, past challenges from pirates on the Sea of Tranquility and a sphinx with a riddle (“It weighs a ton, but floats on air. / It’s bald but has a lot of hair.” The answer? “Meow”). They endure multiple close but frustratingly glancing encounters with pizza and finally deliver the malign, multiheaded Rat King and its toothy armies to a suitable fate. Cue the massive pizza party! Aside from one pirate captain and a general back on Earth, the human and humanoid cast in Harris’ loosely drawn cartoon panels, from the appropriately moon-faced queen on, is light skinned. Merch, music, and the original episodes are available on an associated website.
Epic lunacy. (Graphic science fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-308408-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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