A delightful animated tale among the stars.
A young girl aboard a starship uses her skills to cover up a costly blunder in this third installment of Horn’s middle-grade SF series.
Nine-year-old math and science whiz Eudora Jenkins lives with her family and many others on the space fleet flagship Athena. The inhabitants of this vessel represent the 20 planets in the Planetary Republic. Eudora’s mother is from Pox and resembles an anthropomorphic gray wolf, and her dad, of Pow, looks like an octopus—neither of them much resembles their two adopted human daughters. Life in outer space can be fun but not when Eudora’s goody-two-shoes older sister Molly gets the lead in the school play. Eudora pulls a prank during a performance, which gets her in trouble and earns her a trip to the surprisingly comfy brig. Later, she craves a game of Woggle (a word-based game similar to Boggle); most people are too busy to play, but Eudora finally finds an opponent in Lt. Cmdr. Walter, Athena’s sole, very expensive, robot officer. After she repeatedly loses the game, she throws a fit and accidentally breaks Walter, who stops functioning entirely. To avoid trouble, she hooks Walter up to a “remote-control-person device” of her own design. With her human bestie Arnold providing Walter’s voice through a voice box, they manage to make the robot officer seem somewhat like his normal self as he traverses the flagship. But an unexpected threat from the Qlaxons, the Planetary Republic’s greatest enemies, complicates Eudora’s plan.
The young protagonist’s continuing misadventures make for an entertaining read. The author gives the story a life lesson as well: Eudora may be acting out, but she learns that talking about your feelings is better than suppressing them. The novel also promotes acceptance, as in the case of Arnold’s stepdad, Lt. Londo, a Qlaxon (whose lionlike appearance makes him impossible to miss); despite planet Qlaxonia’s bad reputation, Londo is unquestionably respected (“Arnold loves his cool Qlaxon dad. Except when they do math homework. Math is very important to Londo, and he can be tough about it”) and serves as the ship’s chief of security. The nonhuman cast includes individuals with appearances akin to familiar Earth animals, including an alligator and a bird. Tondora’s black-and-white artwork beautifully captures the diverse species aboard Athena. Facial expressions are especially remarkable, from Eudora’s exaggerated frown/eye-roll combo to the infectious smiles of so many characters. The 9-year-old’s first-person narrative is, perhaps unsurprisingly, mostly lighthearted. Eudora explains things clearly and concisely for younger readers, such as the basic rules of the game Woggle. Her antics provoke laughter as she and Arnold struggle to make certain Walter doesn’t look stiff and unnatural like a more traditional metallic robot. Unfortunately, the resolutions to both the Walter dilemma and the Qlaxon threat are overly tidy and unimaginative. But there’s plenty here for readers of all ages to enjoy, and they’ll surely savor another installment with this gleefully brash and brainy girl.
Pub Date: March 28, 2023
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 93
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A close encounter of the best kind.
Left behind when the space bus departs, a child discovers that the moon isn’t as lifeless as it looks.
While the rest of the space-suited class follows the teacher like ducklings, one laggard carrying crayons and a sketchbook sits down to draw our home planet floating overhead, falls asleep, and wakes to see the bus zooming off. The bright yellow bus, the gaggle of playful field-trippers, and even the dull gray boulders strewn over the equally dull gray lunar surface have a rounded solidity suggestive of Plasticine models in Hare’s wordless but cinematic scenes…as do the rubbery, one-eyed, dull gray creatures (think: those stress-busting dolls with ears that pop out when squeezed) that emerge from the regolith. The mutual shock lasts but a moment before the lunarians eagerly grab the proffered crayons to brighten the bland gray setting with silly designs. The creatures dive into the dust when the bus swoops back down but pop up to exchange goodbye waves with the errant child, who turns out to be an olive-skinned kid with a mop of brown hair last seen drawing one of their new friends with the one crayon—gray, of course—left in the box. Body language is expressive enough in this debut outing to make a verbal narrative superfluous.
A close encounter of the best kind. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4253-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
An effort as insubstantial as any spirit.
Eleven-year-old Maria Russo helps her charlatan mother hoodwink customers, but Maria has a spirited secret.
Maria’s mother, the psychic Madame Destine, cons widows out of their valuables with the assistance of their apartment building’s super, Mr. Fox. Madame Destine home-schools Maria, and because Destine is afraid of unwanted attention, she forbids Maria from talking to others. Maria is allowed to go to the library, where new librarian Ms. Madigan takes an interest in Maria that may cause her trouble. Meanwhile, Sebastian, Maria’s new upstairs neighbor, would like to be friends. All this interaction makes it hard for Maria to keep her secret: that she is visited by Edward, a spirit who tells her the actual secrets of Madame Destine’s clients via spirit writing. When Edward urges Maria to help Mrs. Fisher, Madame Destine’s most recent mark, Maria must overcome her shyness and her fear of her mother—helping Mrs. Fisher may be the key to the mysterious past Maria uncovers and a brighter future. Alas, picture-book–creator Ford’s middle-grade debut is a muddled, melodramatic mystery with something of an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink feel: In addition to the premise, there’s a tragically dead father, a mysterious family tree, and the Beat poets. Sluggish pacing; stilted, unrealistic dialogue; cartoonishly stock characters; and unattractive, flat illustrations make this one to miss. Maria and Sebastian are both depicted with brown skin, hers lighter than his; the other principals appear to be white.
An effort as insubstantial as any spirit. (author’s note) (Paranormal mystery. 7-10)Pub Date: July 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-20567-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
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