Fun for feline fanatics and light sci-fi lovers.
Wyss-Kuzz was such an evil warlord his feline people rose up and dusted off an ancient punishment: exile via teleporter to the most awful place in the cosmos, Earth.
Raj Bannerjee, soon-to-be sixth-grader, has been exiled from his beloved Brooklyn to Elba, Oregon, which is creepily full of nature. Unbeknownst to the Bannerjees, an alien has been banished to their front yard. Wyss-Kuzz, terrified of the liquid falling from the sky, seeks shelter in one of the fortresses inhabited by furless ogres who are so stupid they can’t understand his feline language (or recognize his vast superiority). Raj has always wanted a cat and promises to go to survival camp if he can keep Klawde, as his clueless father’s renamed the alien warlord. Can Raj survive survival camp? Can Wyss-Kuzz bend these disgusting primitives to his will and get them to build him a transporter so he can exact revenge on his home planet? Earth cats are imbeciles, but a mind-meld can conquer the language barrier with humans…but that may cause more troubles than it solves. Wyss-Kuzz and Raj trade off narration duties in Marciano and Chenoweth’s first of four hissterical interstellar adventures. Wyss-Kuzz’s constant misinterpretation of things earthly and Raj’s goofy new friends and enemies at camp will hook even reluctant readers. Mommaerts’s two-color, cartoon illustrations add more laughs as well as such background details as the Banerjees’ Ganesha to confirm their South Asian heritage. Sequel Enemies publishes simultaneously.
Fun for feline fanatics and light sci-fi lovers. (Science fiction. 7-11)Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-8720-2
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
We challenge anyone to read this and keep a straight face.
Four misunderstood villains endeavor to turn over a new leaf…or a new rap sheet in Blabey's frenzied romp.
As readers open the first page of this early chapter book, Mr. Wolf is right there to greet them, bemoaning his reputation. "Just because I've got BIG POINTY TEETH and RAZOR-SHARP CLAWS and I occasionally like to dress up like an OLD LADY, that doesn't mean… / … I'm a BAD GUY." To prove this very fact, Mr. Wolf enlists three equally slandered friends into the Good Guys Club: Mr. Snake (aka the Chicken Swallower), Mr. Piranha (aka the Butt Biter), and Mr. Shark (aka Jaws). After some convincing from Mr. Wolf, the foursome sets off determined to un-smirch their names (and reluctantly curbing their appetites). Although these predators find that not everyone is ready to be at the receiving end of their helpful efforts, they use all their Bad Guy know-how to manage a few hilarious good deeds. Blabey has hit the proverbial nail on the head, kissed it full on the mouth, and handed it a stick of Acme dynamite. With illustrations that startle in their manic comedy and deadpan direct address and with a narrative that follows four endearingly sardonic characters trying to push past (sometimes successfully) their fear-causing natures, this book instantly joins the classic ranks of Captain Underpants and The Stinky Cheese Man.
We challenge anyone to read this and keep a straight face. (Fiction. 7-11)Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-91240-2
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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