A cozy and warmhearted adventure with some nice touches.
Three friends discover a hidden pool whose magical properties could help protect an animal habitat in this illustrated children’s book.
Fifth graders Cosmo, Leigh, and Tara pay a visit to the spooky mansion owned by Cosmo’s grandmother. There, they encounter several talking animals and discover a secret door that leads, Grandma reveals, to the tunnels of an abandoned gold and silver mine where a pool is hidden. Many years ago, a biologist invented an elixir that allows animals to speak. To protect the secret, she poured the potion into the underground waterhole, which now serves as a place for animals of all kinds to meet, talk, and solve problems such as habitat loss. The children make an adventurous journey to the hidden pool, but Leigh has trouble maneuvering his wheelchair. A glowing lady gives him a special drink that makes operating the chair effortless—he can even fly or skip over the water—allowing him to joyfully explore the crystal-lined tunnels. The kids learn that the biologist also invented a camouflage liquid that can protect endangered animals while making humans’ fears become real. The liquid is found and distributed around Grandma’s house, scaring off would-be property developers for good. In her second book featuring Leigh, McIver gives her character a way to experience mobility that celebrates rather than erases his wheelchair. This type of lovely scene is hard to find in children’s books. The fantasy of saving endangered species and habitats also has strong appeal as well as the fun of potions, talking animals, and hidden wonders. But the writing suffers from the overuse of dialogue tags (“Cosmo chuckles”; “Tara giggles”; “whines Tara”). Saunders, illustrating her latest children’s book, supplies winsome monochrome and color pictures of the White characters that convey the story’s compassion.
A cozy and warmhearted adventure with some nice touches.Pub Date: May 28, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-64-841786-6
Page Count: 84
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Ironically, by choosing such a dramatic catalyst, the author weakens the adventure’s impact overall and leaves readers to...
A group of talking farm animals catches wind of the farm owner’s intention to burn the barn (with them in it) for insurance money and hatches a plan to flee.
Bond begins briskly—within the first 10 pages, barn cat Burdock has overheard Dewey Baxter’s nefarious plan, and by Page 17, all of the farm animals have been introduced and Burdock is sharing the terrifying news. Grady, Dewey’s (ever-so-slightly) more principled brother, refuses to go along, but instead of standing his ground, he simply disappears. This leaves the animals to fend for themselves. They do so by relying on their individual strengths and one another. Their talents and personalities match their species, bringing an element of realism to balance the fantasy elements. However, nothing can truly compensate for the bland horror of the premise. Not the growing sense of family among the animals, the serendipitous intervention of an unknown inhabitant of the barn, nor the convenient discovery of an alternate home. Meanwhile, Bond’s black-and-white drawings, justly compared to those of Garth Williams, amplify the sense of dissonance. Charming vignettes and single- and double-page illustrations create a pastoral world into which the threat of large-scale violence comes as a shock.
Ironically, by choosing such a dramatic catalyst, the author weakens the adventure’s impact overall and leaves readers to ponder the awkward coincidences that propel the plot. (Animal fantasy. 8-10)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-544-33217-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
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