Richly complex and nourishing.
The third book in the Finding Serendipity series finds Tuesday McGillycuddy back in the fictional world of Vivienne Small, but this time Tuesday’s adversary is a jealous character of her mother’s own imagination.
Tuesday and her mother, Sarah (aka Serendipity Smith, the world-famous author of the Vivienne Small series), are struggling with depression, brought on by the death a year earlier of Denis McGillycuddy, husband of Sarah and father of Tuesday. Within the world of Vivienne Small, Serendipity’s depression has both caused an earthquake and continual winter and unleashed Loddon—a character imagined by the child Serendipity. Loddon, jealous of Vivienne, captures her and forces her to summon Serendipity, but it is Tuesday who arrives by mistake. What follows is both an adventure story as Tuesday fights for her life (with Baxterr, the winged dog, and Tuesday’s godmother, Colette Baden-Baden, searching for her) and a story of healing as Serendipity faces fears begotten in a lonely childhood. Writing duo Banks (adult authors Heather Rose and Danielle Wood) weaves these narratives together with admirable skill and compassion, bringing a sophistication to this story of the writing life, including wonderful writing metaphors, such as “Other [staircases] stopped…short…as if you were simply meant to jump.” While the themes of depression and emotional healing may pass over some readers, others will doubtless feel seen and validated. Lewis’ spot illustrations show the human characters as white.
Richly complex and nourishing. (Fantasy. 10-13)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-62779-156-4
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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