A sweet spoonful of happiness for readers.
Fred, the peacemaking AI, tries to force people to be kind and generous. It doesn’t go well.
In this third series entry, Fred, who’s been kidnapped and taken to the Tomorrow Sphere, a prosperous secret city, joyfully invites the city’s leaders to share their abundance of food, water, medicine, and other supplies with the rest of the postapocalyptic world’s beleaguered survivors. Fred’s response when they arrogantly refuse is oddly uncharacteristic—he gets mad, his oversize glasses go red, and he stomps off to recruit several warlords and a passing crowd of refugees to attack the selfish settlement. “I’m done being nice!” he rants. “And no one is getting a sticker!” His loyal sidekick, Wormy, who has brown skin and blond hair, realizes that something is definitely wrong. But it’s only after a pitched battle that her plea to remember that people can’t be told to be good (they have to make that choice themselves) brings him back to himself in time to do what he does best by engineering an amicable settlement for all. It’s a settlement that involves lots of ice cream, too. Why? “Ice cream makes you happy when you are sad!” Rex doesn’t offer actual explanations for Fred’s software glitch or its timely disappearance, but this unexpected behavior does make the light-skinned, round-headed pacifist seem a little less too good to be true, and his message therefore that much easier to accept.
A sweet spoonful of happiness for readers. (Graphic science fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: July 22, 2025
ISBN: 9780593206430
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2025
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
With plenty left to be resolved, the next entry will be eagerly sought after.
Drake has been selected by the king to serve as a Dragon Master, quite a change for an 8-year-old farmer boy.
The dragons are a secret, and the reason King Roland has them is a mystery, but what is clear is that the Dragon Stone has identified Drake as one of the rare few children who have a special connection with dragons and the ability to serve as a trainer. Drake’s dragon is a long brown creature with, at first, no particular talents that Drake can identify. He calls the dragon Worm. It isn’t long before Drake begins to realize he has a very strong connection with Worm and can share what seem to be his dragon’s thoughts. After one of the other Dragon Masters decides to illicitly take the dragons outside, disaster strikes. The cave they are passing through collapses, blocking the passageway, and then Worm’s special talent becomes evident. The first of a new series of early chapter books, this entry is sure to attract fans. Brief chapters, large print, lots of action, attractive illustrations in every spread, including a maplike panorama, an enviable protagonist—who wouldn’t want to be a Dragon Master?—all combine to make an entertaining read.
With plenty left to be resolved, the next entry will be eagerly sought after. (Fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-64624-6
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Branches/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
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