Agenda-driven from “howl to snap”—but with action aplenty to go with considerations of complex issues.
The Moonlight Brigade sallies out from Ankle Snap Alley to free the local zoo’s captive creatures.
Prompted by the trapping of his mother and several alley residents to (it turns out) stock a new exhibit titled “The Urban Wild,” raccoon Kit intrepidly leads his motley crew of feral vigilantes on a nighttime rescue mission that, once he smells the miasma of fear and hears the birds’ “songs of sadness,” quickly becomes an effort to open all the cages and pens. But not every creature longs to escape the zoo’s comforts, and the quiet expedition quickly becomes a frantic life-and-death struggle. Though London’s characters do actively debate the conflicting allures of freedom and safety, he portrays the zoo as a nightmarish prison, where the habitats are painted fakes and a peaceable polar bear who elects to stay out of concern for his wild relatives is nonetheless shot at the climax by a panicked person. Ultimately the alley’s “pals of the paw” all escape, though the fates of the riddle-loving baboons, rapping mongooses, and other “animals who’d been trapped and put in a zoo” (as opposed to “zoo animals”) remain unclear. While encouraging readers to understand that “no one want[s] to be labeled by just one part of their life” is a worthy aim, embedding the conversation in the zoo-escape plot is perhaps not the most efficient way to go about it.
Agenda-driven from “howl to snap”—but with action aplenty to go with considerations of complex issues. (Animal fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-17101-7
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: April 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
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
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride.
Zipping back and forth in time atop outsized robo–bell bottoms, mad inventor Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) legs his way to center stage in this slightly less-labored continuation of episode 9.
The action commences after a rambling recap and a warning not to laugh or smile on pain of being forced to read Sarah Plain and Tall. Pilkey first sends his peevish protagonist back a short while to save the Earth (destroyed in the previous episode), then on to various prehistoric eras in pursuit of George, Harold and the Captain. It’s all pretty much an excuse for many butt jokes, dashes of off-color humor (“Tippy pressed the button on his Freezy-Beam 4000, causing it to rise from the depths of his Robo-Pants”), a lengthy wordless comic and two tussles in “Flip-o-rama.” Still, the chase kicks off an ice age, the extinction of the dinosaurs and the Big Bang (here the Big “Ka-Bloosh!”). It ends with a harrowing glimpse of what George and Harold would become if they decided to go straight. The author also chucks in a poopy-doo-doo song with musical notation (credited to Albert P. Einstein) and plenty of ink-and-wash cartoon illustrations to crank up the ongoing frenzy.
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-17536-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
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