A solid trilogy closer for returning fans.
A whiz-kid inventor and his ragtag crew must save the world from aliens…again.
It’s unclear why Ferrous City is a “hotbed of alien activity,” but Ethan Fairmount knows that he can’t tell his parents about any of it—especially not about another potential alien attack just a few months after the last. And even as he turns to his friends instead, he still doesn’t initially tell them the whole truth about his beloved and now-missing guinea pig, Nugget. Ethan is scared and in over his head when he reaches out via walkie-talkie to the squad—his oldest friend, Kareem, inventive Fatima, creatively inclined Jodie, siblings RJ and Di (the latter of whom Ethan has a huge, not-so-secret crush on), and loyal new friend Juan Carlos. The narrative jumps right into the adventure as the ranks of aliens grow—both the good guys accompanying small, purple, six-eyed Cheese and the world-destroying reptilian light-thieves. Ethan eventually needs to add his big brothers to the hero squad, a move that draws attention to his habit of keeping secrets from those closest to him. Ultimately, the bumbling, one-dimensional alien villains who seemingly barely understand their own nefarious goals and technology stand no chance against an abundance of clever, sometimes snarky, and increasingly tight-knit young Black and brown humans and their alien companions. The path to a happy ending relies just as much on realizing how invaluable friendship is as it does on sheer luck.
A solid trilogy closer for returning fans. (Science fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781454947134
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
Poignant and heartwarming.
Zephyrina the cat, the “Robin Hood of felines,” rescues discarded toys so they can have new lives.
Zephyrina brings toys back to the apartment she shares with Elizaveta and her daughter, Dasha, refugees from war-torn Ukraine. Dasha reconditions Zephyrina’s rescues and sets them outside for three days, just in case they have owners who want to reclaim them. Afterward, they join the other toys in the parlor—the Second Chances Home for the Tossed and Treasured. Dasha and Elizaveta don’t know that the toys are sentient. At midnight they abandon their rigid daytime postures to cavort and play, overseen by their leader, Pocket, a tiny mascot bear made to comfort soldiers during World War I. One night, Zephyrina brings back a dirty old bear, and Pocket is astounded. The new arrival, Berwon, might come from a lost shipment of the first-ever stuffed bears, sent from Germany to the U.S. in 1903—and if so, he’s worth a fortune. In the ensuing antics, the unpleasant villain Picky Vicky covets Berwon, and a kind museum curator does, too, but for different reasons. Applegate’s writing is exquisitely nuanced; she couches profound themes in accessible language that depicts relatable situations. Gentle, generous Elizaveta and Dasha poignantly underscore the human impact of wars. Santoso’s enchanting, delicate, black-and-white illustrations bring the timeless feeling of a classic to this hopeful, humanizing story of the distressed looking out for each other.
Poignant and heartwarming. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9781250904362
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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