For fans of old-style stories.
Having ruled a community of children for a month, a princess heads home to free her kingdom from enemy invaders.
When Princess Juniper received a “brand-new, all-kids country” for her 13th birthday (Princess Juniper of the Hourglass, 2015), she created a romantic valley settlement for her 13 subjects; encountering the Anju, the reclusive, tribal culture of her late mother, she befriended them (Princess Juniper of the Anju, 2016). Now her father’s been overthrown by enemies back at the real castle, so she plots “How to Overthrow a Palace When You Are Understaffed, Underarmed, and Underaged.” Juniper’s team—including a deaf spy who lip-reads implausibly well but also signs and uses a patch of dark fabric stuck to her arm for writing on with chalk—haunts the castle’s hidden hallways and causes “little pranks and mischiefs” until they can manage a true upheaval. Twists and traitors abound, but between luxurious details (foods; a bone-handled comb always in Juniper’s sleeve) and Paquette’s playful diction (“spizzerinctum”; “curiously curious”; “Ruffians we have aplenty”), the vibe is “energetic mayhem” or “showtime!”—never scary. The narrative pace meanders a bit; the appeal is situation and intent more than action. The Anju have only a small role, though it’s still highly problematic for an indigenous-coded group to be at Juniper’s beck and call, even with their blood connection. Everyone besides mixed-race Juniper and the Anju is white.
For fans of old-style stories. (map, cast of characters) (Fantasy. 8-11)Pub Date: June 6, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-17153-6
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dizzyingly silly.
The famous superhero returns to fight another villain with all the trademark wit and humor the series is known for.
Despite the title, Captain Underpants is bizarrely absent from most of this adventure. His school-age companions, George and Harold, maintain most of the spotlight. The creative chums fool around with time travel and several wacky inventions before coming upon the evil Turbo Toilet 2000, making its return for vengeance after sitting out a few of the previous books. When the good Captain shows up to save the day, he brings with him dynamic action and wordplay that meet the series’ standards. The Captain Underpants saga maintains its charm even into this, the 11th volume. The epic is filled to the brim with sight gags, toilet humor, flip-o-ramas and anarchic glee. Holding all this nonsense together is the author’s good-natured sense of harmless fun. The humor is never gross or over-the-top, just loud and innocuous. Adults may roll their eyes here and there, but youngsters will eat this up just as quickly as they devoured every other Underpants episode.
Dizzyingly silly. (Humor. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-50490-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...
At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever.
Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975
ISBN: 0312369816
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975
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