The plot may be about trying to change the future, but the patriarchal themes in this action story are stuck in the past.
A cabin full of boys with uncontrollable powers races to change the future in this new adventure from Martin (Code Name Flood, 2017, etc.).
At Camp Outlier, everyone’s a RISK. The “recurring incidents of the strange kind” vary. Some kids spontaneously combust, and others have X-ray vision. Twelve-year-old Emerson floats unless he wears a weighted vest to keep him grounded. When his mom drops him off for two and a half months of government-supervised fun, Emerson discovers that, for the first time, he doesn’t feel out of place. His cabin bands together to win the capture-the-flag tournament and to save their new friend Murphy, a time traveler doomed to disappear forever if they can’t find a way to change his future. The summer-camp setting recalls Camp Half-Blood of the Percy Jackson series, though with far less gender diversity. Although the boys occasionally interact with a cabin of girls, the female characters come across as props in a world where heterosexuality is an unquestioned norm. In one scene, the older campers force Emerson’s cabin into dresses and makeup for their camp initiation. This scene returns as a recurring joke throughout the book. Overall, a retrograde sense of masculinity overshadows what might otherwise be a story about finding kinship and self-confidence. Although the book assumes a white default, some of the campers are diverse.
The plot may be about trying to change the future, but the patriarchal themes in this action story are stuck in the past. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-280376-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
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