At best, about half an episode’s worth of plot for this otherwise above-average series.
Searching for her missing brother on the flying island of Astaroth, Dessa uncovers evidence of a shadowy conspiracy of grand scope.
Reaching the island using homemade gliders, Dessa and her nonhuman companions, Topper and Fisk, discover a delightful playground built for four children—all kidnapped from royal families—by a mysterious “Toymaker” whose underground realm turns out to occupy the island’s entire core. Meanwhile, back on the mainland, the warrior Capt. Drake captures Dessa’s amnesiac brother, Jared, after a merry chase and receives from him hints of treacherous doings involving the sinister royal chamberlain, Greyfalcon. Still on Dessa’s trail, Drake gallops on to take ship for Astaroth. As usual, predicaments, rescues, heroic physical feats, and startling revelations pile on in sequences of clear and easily readable panels. But series fans hoping that Drake will finally catch up here with his elusive quarry are in for disappointment, as Chantler, after picking up both storylines right where they left off in the previous outing, moves them only a little before cutting off at the end with a double cliffhanger. Moreover, not only is the continual shifting back and forth likely to be wearing on readers, but the pacing takes on a herky-jerky feel as the author adds filler panels here and crams too much action into some sequences there.
At best, about half an episode’s worth of plot for this otherwise above-average series. (Graphic fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: April 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-894786-55-3
Page Count: 116
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
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
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
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