Action, adventure, fantasy, humor and a glimpse of a potential budding romance are all here, making this a great...
As in the previous titles (The Call, 2010, and The Trap, 2011), this third installment in the Magnificent 12 series speeds forward with the help of over-the-top action sequences and rapid, clever dialogue.
This episode opens with Mack about to be catapulted and most likely smashed into a wall near Loch Ness, when at the last minute he is saved by French goth-girl Sylvie, who is the half sibling of evil Valin, an ally to the dark forces supporting the rise of the Pale Queen—and both Mack and Sylvie happen to be members of the Magnificent 12, on a quest to obtain the second part of the vital key. And this is how the story progresses, like an urgent, never-ending run-on sentence. With many plot twists, comic diversions involving the Golem standing in for Mack back at home, timely introductions of new characters, explanations of Vargan spells, and just-in-time fantastical feats that save lives and ultimately move the Eiffel Tower from one side of the Seine to the other, readers are in for a most entertaining if often hard-to-fathom tale. Grant’s series flows like a much-hyped Hollywood summer blockbuster: The special effects are impressive, but readers must instantly agree to suspend disbelief. A website encourages fans to create their own avatars, review characters and settings and keep updated on the latest news about the series.
Action, adventure, fantasy, humor and a glimpse of a potential budding romance are all here, making this a great end-of-summer read. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-183370-0
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
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
A half-baked jumble of poorly connected themes, incidents, and tropes.
Eleven-year-old Georgie sets out to the rescue after seeing his dad snatched into thin air by a hideous figure.
In a confusing debut that reads like a first draft, the kidnapping impels the young slingshot expert to go from doggedly enduring vicious bullying at school to intrepidly plunging after his father through a portal to Scatterplot, an otherworldly realm where the memories of everyone in New York are uploaded by omnilingual Scribes. Classmates Apurva Aluwhalia (who’s cued South Asian) and Roscoe Harris (who reads Black and is confined to a role that’s largely limited to comic relief), each motivated by their own concerns, follow white-presenting Georgie on his adventure. In Scatterplot, they must remain alert for the “tribe” of “bad people” called Altercockers, formed by the exiled Rollie D. Meanwhile, Flint Eldritch, the menacing figure who was responsible for Georgie’s father’s disappearance, is bent on using the Aetherquill, a magical pen that can rewrite reality in unpredictable ways, to replace all those recorded memories with fake ones. In a story that’s marred by stilted dialogue, flat characterization, and awkward turns of phrase, Georgie and his friends, along with Scatterplot siblings Edie and Ore, embark on a quest to save both his father and the entire realm. The puss-oozing, misshapen villain Flint, crawling with bugs, does at least provide a memorably lurid element of horror. The novel ends with an abrupt cliffhanger.
A half-baked jumble of poorly connected themes, incidents, and tropes. (Fantasy. 10-13)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9798886453164
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
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