This offers a few smiles and a laugh or two while readers wait for the sequel.
STEM camp is nerd heaven—until the aliens descend.
Kevin and his friends Ward, Tara and TJ have to find a way to win the Invention Convention at Northwest Horizons science camp if for no other reason than to beat Kevin’s nemesis, Alexander. Unfortunately, Alexander and his team, the Vainglorious Math Nerds, have built a working hovercraft. Kevin and his pals decide to build a galactascope, an interstellar communications device based on a comic book written by a man supposedly abducted by aliens…and it works! Responding to their summons, small, purple and furry Mim crashes into the camp lake. Can the friends keep Mim a secret until the Invention Convention? They’re pretty crafty, so probably. But when more aliens descend, can they trust that all their new friend has told them is fact? Kloepfer’s series kickoff is slow to start. It’s only after the aliens arrive that the story shows signs of life and only toward the end that the fun actually lifts this above run-of-the-mill go-to-camp tales. The sequel, set up in the last couple pages, might well be fun from the start, since the preliminaries are now out of the way. Final art not seen.
This offers a few smiles and a laugh or two while readers wait for the sequel. (Science fiction/humor. 8-11)Pub Date: July 22, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-06-223101-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2014
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
File under “laugh riot.”
A rogue spell-check program’s bid to transform all life-forms into that eminently useful office item, the paper clip, touches off a fresh round of lunar lunacy.
Predicated on the entirely reasonable premise that eliminating all spelling and grammar errors everywhere would logically lead to the necessity of exterminating carbon-based life in the universe, this third series entry combines high stakes with daffy banter and daring exploits. CheckMate—a chipper, jumped-up editing program—has invented the Transmogratron, a giant laser that will fulfill its ultimate goals in both the cyber world and “meatspace.” Facing challenges as random as prankster lunar unicorns and a disarmingly motherly Motherboard, scowling First Cat joins a motley crew of diversely carbon- and silicon-based allies, led by the pearlescent Queen of the Moon. They’re in a race to the finish—diverted occasionally by, for instance, a relentlessly punny comic-book interlude featuring a pair of literal and figurative Pool Sharks. They ultimately triumph thanks to teamwork and moxie. Following a celebratory party and toasts to “new friends…and steadfast comrades” (and, of course, “MEOW”), the story’s energetic, brightly colored panels close with a reveal of the next volume. (“I always hate it when comics end by announcing a sequel. SO CRINGE!” declares an authorial stand-in.) It can’t come too soon.
File under “laugh riot.” (Graphic science fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2024
ISBN: 9780063315280
Page Count: 272
Publisher: HarperAlley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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