Wit and teamwork win the day in this android adventure.
A boy and a robot bond.
Alfie is missing a hand. Eric is missing a leg. Alfie’s a 12-year-old kid; Eric’s an enormous robot. Alfie, looking for his misplaced bionic hand in the lost-property office at the airport, encounters Eric, who declares that he desires nothing more than to serve him as part butler, part questing knight (“WE RIDE AT DAWN!” “STAND ASIDE, VARLET!”). This leads to a series of adventures during which Alfie helps Eric escape from authorities who are bent on turning him into scrap metal. Set in a near-future world that is full of robots—chatty, mood-reading doors (“Come in, Alfie… I’ll put the kettle on. Why not sit down and stabilize your metabolism?”), self-driving buses, and highly sophisticated prosthetics—this novel is an imaginative reflection on the ethical neutrality of automation. In this world, technology is only as helpful or harmful as humans allow it to be. A parallel plot thread centers the kids at the Limb Lab, where Alfie comes to terms with the accident that cost him his hand. Other kids there include Shatila, a sardonic hijabi girl from Bosnia, who lost her foot to a land mine. An emotional revelation late in the second act shifts the story’s momentum into high gear as it nears an emotional conclusion. Humorous illustrations throughout add to the sense of adventure. Alfie is depicted with brown skin and black hair.
Wit and teamwork win the day in this android adventure. (author’s note) (Adventure. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9781509887910
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023
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
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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