This extended exercise in often overflowing imagination needs more authenticity, grounding, and restraint to allow its tale...
After suffering disappointment, an ingenious boy from Manhattan takes a train to a wondrous world and embarks on a quest in this debut middle-grade fantasy novel.
Hugo Doppel looks forward to the annual Mad Science Day at his elementary school, Great Beacon Academy, because he plans to present his latest invention: a machine with the ability not only to create any weather he desires, but also to stop current conditions. Unfortunately, when his machine fails to prevent the snow coming down during his demonstration, he becomes the school’s laughingstock. Dejected, he starts to walk home, coming across an old subway token for something called the “Menlo Express.” He wishes he could be whisked away from Manhattan to a place of adventure, and soon, in a burst of snowflakes, he is, finding himself in a train station he’s never heard of before that is curiously named after him. Boarding the train, he winds up at the Junkyard of Goofy Inventions, guarded by Inventaur the Centaur, whose boss, Henry Pendleton, presents him with a letter from Magnus Winterbach the Wizard. The missive states that Hugo’s discovery of the mysterious token signifies that he is meant to free Magnus and many others from the tyrannical rule of the Skull Face Witch, who has wreaked havoc on the Kingdom of Menlo for many years. Weger stuffs his ambitious novel with fanciful scenes and whimsical characters, arguably to a fault. Although Hugo proves to be a resourceful and likable hero, the book relies less on plot and character development to propel the narrative, focusing instead on increasingly silly worldbuilding—including a desert of wet sand, an anthropomorphic bus, enormous cockroaches, and more. These facets, which are often entertaining, ultimately become exhausting, rarely providing true storytelling substance. While the novel often hearkens back to other classic examples of children’s literature, in which young, ordinary protagonists travel to magical lands, it rarely displays the finesse and heart of such genre titans as Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, and the Narnia series.
This extended exercise in often overflowing imagination needs more authenticity, grounding, and restraint to allow its tale about a young inventor to truly soar.Pub Date: Dec. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-63413-682-2
Page Count: 204
Publisher: Mill City Press
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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