Free-wheeling follies with satiric digs aplenty.
Trouble comes to Trubble Town even before all the grown-ups are abducted by alien Berrymanalows.
Sharing with its predecessor, Squirrel Do Bad (2021), a decidedly free-associational style of plotting, cartoonist Pastis’ newest pits young Wendy the Wanderer and silent orphan Milo against numerous foes, from evil tycoon Moneybags McGibbons to a bunch of opportunistic children who elect themselves town bosses after their empty-headed parents vanish thanks to not one but two rival sets of lounge singers from the stars (the other being the Waynenootonians). In a random (if increasingly destructive) series of mishaps and catastrophes featuring, for example, a wrestling match between costumed ex–civil servant Nutman and town propagandist Scribby Von Scrivener atop a giant banana, the town ends up leveled…but at least both the useless grown-ups and the bad kids are sent away together on a long trip, the aliens are driven off before they can perform, and Milo and Wendy are left to rebuild with the few remaining residents, mostly animals. In the appropriately manic art, the aliens resemble vegetables dressed, in some of the more frightening panels, as Elvis impersonators, while Wendy, flaunting a mop of purple hair, and the rest of the dot-eyed human cast present in a subtle range of skin colors.
Free-wheeling follies with satiric digs aplenty. (Graphic humor. 9-13)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5344-9614-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
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
An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel.
Sandy and his family, Japanese Canadians, experience hatred and incarceration during World War II.
Sandy Saito loves baseball, and the Vancouver Asahi ballplayers are his heroes. But when they lose in the 1941 semifinals, Sandy’s dad calls it a bad omen. Sure enough, in December 1941, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor in the U.S. The Canadian government begins to ban Japanese people from certain areas, moving them to “dormitories” and setting a curfew. Sandy wants to spend time with his father, but as a doctor, his dad is busy, often sneaking out past curfew to work. One night Papa is taken to “where he [is] needed most,” and the family is forced into an internment camp. Life at the camp isn’t easy, and even with some of the Asahi players playing ball there, it just isn’t the same. Trying to understand and find joy again, Sandy struggles with his new reality and relationship with his father. Based on the true experiences of Japanese Canadians and the Vancouver Asahi team, this graphic novel is a glimpse of how their lives were affected by WWII. The end is a bit abrupt, but it’s still an inspiring and sweet look at how baseball helped them through hardship. The illustrations are all in a sepia tone, giving it an antique look and conveying the emotions and struggles. None of the illustrations of their experiences are overly graphic, making it a good introduction to this upsetting topic for middle-grade readers.
An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel. (afterword, further resources) (Graphic historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5253-0334-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
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