Dynamic, upbeat, and seriously enjoyable tales.
Three kids with disabilities investigate crimes and bring villains to justice in Neill’s second omnibus of middle-grade adventures.
Rasheed comes from a home that honors Christian and Muslim traditions, and he gets around in a motorized wheelchair. His best friends are Jonathan, who uses a cane, and Jojo, who lives with anxiety and depression and has a feathered serpent companion named Quetzy, disguised as a scarf. The three friends live in a society where humans and magical creatures coexist. In three previous adventures, aided by magical animal companions Dan (a rhinoceroslike karkadan) and Max (a flying firefox), they’ve built a reputation as skilled mystery solvers. The present volume commences with “The Case of the Peryton Thief,” in which they investigate a costumed superhero who’s stealing medicine and a pharmaceutical company with its own nefarious scheme. In “Framed!,” Rasheed is unjustly arrested for committing bank robberies—including one that occurs while he’s in jail. Jonathan and Jojo must track down the real culprit. In “Cahoots!,” the team investigates mysterious thefts committed by golems; while doing so, they lock horns again with archvillains Dr. Evilina Dorisova (given to expressions such as “Oh fiddlesticks”) and Golden Pomp, a real estate mogul. Neill offers straightforward stories that will engage young readers. Each adventure offers a fast-moving blend of imperilment, investigation, everyday bravery, and superheroic action. The chapters are bite-sized and easily digestible, and Rasheed, Jonathan, and Jojo are relatable protagonists—proactive, intelligent, and fiercely loyal. The adult characters fall into two categories: They’re either good-natured and supportive, or villainous without much nuance (“But give up now? When my plan is nearly complete? You children must think I’m a fool”). Their portrayals might have benefited from more shades of gray, although one character is overtly acknowledged as being a victim of stereotyping. Each story is more or less self-contained, although some characters and plot elements recur from past installments without elucidation. Spooner’s cartoon-style, grayscale illustrations help paper over any confusion, adding pep to the plots and exemplifying the magical and inclusive nature of this fictional world.
Dynamic, upbeat, and seriously enjoyable tales.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9798857615645
Page Count: 374
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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
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