The caper should appeal to readers looking for a lot of action, a few puzzles and not a lot of depth.
This fast-paced, National Treasure–style mystery puts an imaginative spin on the real story behind the infamous theft of several masterpieces from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990.
Thirteen-year-old Moxie discovers that her beloved Grumps, now languishing in a home for Alzheimer’s patients, may have been involved in the much-publicized art heist. She knows he had been employed as a fixer for criminal elements in his shady past but does not know any specifics. Extra drama is added in the form of a sinister, even sadistic redheaded woman who acts on behalf of notorious crime boss Sully Cupcakes (yes, really) and who loses no opportunity to threaten Moxie with a fate worse than death if she does not find and return the stolen art within two weeks. This puts Moxie in a serious quandary. She can either go to the police and risk Grumps’ arrest, or she can confess all to her mother and risk being permanently exiled from Boston to New Hampshire at the behest of Mom’s new boyfriend. Either way, Moxie feels compelled to undertake the search for the missing art, aided by Ollie, her trusty sidekick and a geocaching whiz. With the help of her considerable math smarts and namesake moxie, our heroine manages to protect her family and track down the missing art, with unexpected consequences. Moxie narrates the breathless, action-packed tale in a humorous first person, maintaining the suspense almost to the end.
The caper should appeal to readers looking for a lot of action, a few puzzles and not a lot of depth. (Thriller. 10-15)Pub Date: July 11, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3871-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 21, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
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
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense.
In the midst of political turmoil, how do you escape the only country that you’ve ever known and navigate a new life? Parallel stories of three different middle school–aged refugees—Josef from Nazi Germany in 1938, Isabel from 1994 Cuba, and Mahmoud from 2015 Aleppo—eventually intertwine for maximum impact.
Three countries, three time periods, three brave protagonists. Yet these three refugee odysseys have so much in common. Each traverses a landscape ruled by a dictator and must balance freedom, family, and responsibility. Each initially leaves by boat, struggles between visibility and invisibility, copes with repeated obstacles and heart-wrenching loss, and gains resilience in the process. Each third-person narrative offers an accessible look at migration under duress, in which the behavior of familiar adults changes unpredictably, strangers exploit the vulnerabilities of transients, and circumstances seem driven by random luck. Mahmoud eventually concludes that visibility is best: “See us….Hear us. Help us.” With this book, Gratz accomplishes a feat that is nothing short of brilliant, offering a skillfully wrought narrative laced with global and intergenerational reverberations that signal hope for the future. Excellent for older middle grade and above in classrooms, book groups, and/or communities looking to increase empathy for new and existing arrivals from afar.
Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense. (maps, author’s note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: July 25, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-88083-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017
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