An action-packed end to a wonder-filled trilogy.
Though life is less thrilling now that its citizens are protected from “pirates and sea dragons,” the island of Hazelport holds multitudinous marvels and irregularities.
Temperamental insects, talking birds, and a bottomless crack in the rocks stoke the imagination, but a man, someone who is “in his every aspect average,” takes notes and measurements—and performs the most gruesome of magic tricks. “The trick is: No more magic.” Surely this cannot stand—not in the swashbuckling world of Peter Nimble and Sophie Quire. Indeed, soon worlds collide, and Peter (who presents white), Sophie (who’s dark-skinned), and a ragtag assemblage of unlikely characters become separated, each caught in a complex and circuitous war of ideals. This final entry in the Peter Nimble series (which has been reissued as The Vanished Kingdom) is ripe with all the action, adventure, intensity, and wordplay of the first two stories. Auxier excels at connecting complex plot points and trusting his readers with darkness, nuance, and thorny concepts, creating complicated and morally ambiguous landscapes. At its heart, this work is about growing up, exploring the wonder found in the mundane beauty of humanity, and the fantasy of childhood giving way to the practical magic of science and progress. The author’s ambitious attempt to bring multiple characters and worlds together pulls focus away from the action and the book’s overarching beauty, however. Intricate, magical spot art opens each chapter.
An action-packed end to a wonder-filled trilogy. (author's note) (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: April 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781419753947
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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