Best read with its companion tome…let’s just say best read; wouldn’t want to anger the Dark Lord.
While the Dark Lord’s away, everyone begins living in peace and harmony, much to the chagrin of the White Wizard, Hasdruban.
Dirk Lloyd, or the Dark Lord, the Nameless One, the World Burner, the Sorcerer Supreme, etc., is still in exile on Earth in the body of a 12-year-old boy who lives with Christopher and his parents. Their friend Sooz (short for Susan) was accidentally sent to the Dark Lands, Dirk’s world of origin, when the trio attempted to magically send Dirk home. Now the boys have the added task of rescuing Sooz and a new impediment, in the form of a nanny who has a secret identity and is likely trying to kill Dirk. Since he’s no longer evil incarnate, her attempts fail miserably. Meanwhile, goth girl Sooz has befriended the Dark Lord’s minions (all that black!) and brought peace to his lands, much to the disbelief of Hasdruban (who’s probably actually more evil than the Dark Lord). Can Dirk and Christopher save Sooz? Does she want to be saved? Would Dirk really sacrifice his friends to become Dark Lord once more? Here’s hoping Thomson’s second Dark Lord title is not the last given the open ending. It is sarcastic British fantasy in the Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams vein; it is a bit long and can tend toward silly, but it will satisfy fans of tongue-in-cheek.
Best read with its companion tome…let’s just say best read; wouldn’t want to anger the Dark Lord. (Humorous fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-8027-3522-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
An endearing protagonist runs the first, fast leg of Reynolds' promising relay.
Castle “Ghost” Cranshaw feels like he’s been running ever since his dad pulled that gun on him and his mom—and used it.
His dad’s been in jail three years now, but Ghost still feels the trauma, which is probably at the root of the many “altercations” he gets into at middle school. When he inserts himself into a practice for a local elite track team, the Defenders, he’s fast enough that the hard-as-nails coach decides to put him on the team. Ghost is surprised to find himself caring enough about being on the team that he curbs his behavior to avoid “altercations.” But Ma doesn’t have money to spare on things like fancy running shoes, so Ghost shoplifts a pair that make his feet feel impossibly light—and his conscience correspondingly heavy. Ghost’s narration is candid and colloquial, reminiscent of such original voices as Bud Caldwell and Joey Pigza; his level of self-understanding is both believably childlike and disarming in its perception. He is self-focused enough that secondary characters initially feel one-dimensional, Coach in particular, but as he gets to know them better, so do readers, in a way that unfolds naturally and pleasingly. His three fellow “newbies” on the Defenders await their turns to star in subsequent series outings. Characters are black by default; those few white people in Ghost’s world are described as such.
An endearing protagonist runs the first, fast leg of Reynolds' promising relay. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-5015-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Caitlyn Dlouhy/Atheneum
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
SEEN & HEARD
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
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