A finny frolic to delight younger Goosebumps fans.
Boy meets shark for the delectation of a TV audience. What could go wrong?
Twelve-year-old Liam Brachman has no intention of being the star of his filmmaker mom’s new shark tank show for the Danger Channel, but when the hired actor suddenly goes down with a last-minute injury, Liam finds himself in the water—facing not the promised harmless hammerhead but a terrifyingly toothy bull shark! That’s only the first in a succession of nasty shocks for Liam that Stine spins out to improbable but entertaining lengths thanks to more all-too-eager filmmakers urging him into a flimsy-looking shark cage, an encounter with a tentacled sea monster, a swim in a piranha lagoon, and the like. Each seemingly inevitable moment of doom leads to one narrow escape after another. For all of this, Liam’s worst nemesis is actually Rosa, his scene-stealing little sister from hell, who chants cutely horrific ditties (“It’s shark time, / It’s shark time, / I can’t wait, I can’t wait / For Liam to be bait…”) while repeatedly showing off a perfectly fiendish gift for getting her big brother into pickles. As it turns out, aside from Liam’s terror, nothing here is quite as it seems—and yet, even though no actual blood is spilled, a final twist suggests that that might not continue to be the case. Main characters present white.
A finny frolic to delight younger Goosebumps fans. (Horror. 8-11)Pub Date: July 2, 2024
ISBN: 9798874712341
Page Count: 250
Publisher: Blackstone
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
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
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
File under “laugh riot.”
A rogue spell-check program’s bid to transform all life-forms into that eminently useful office item, the paper clip, touches off a fresh round of lunar lunacy.
Predicated on the entirely reasonable premise that eliminating all spelling and grammar errors everywhere would logically lead to the necessity of exterminating carbon-based life in the universe, this third series entry combines high stakes with daffy banter and daring exploits. CheckMate—a chipper, jumped-up editing program—has invented the Transmogratron, a giant laser that will fulfill its ultimate goals in both the cyber world and “meatspace.” Facing challenges as random as prankster lunar unicorns and a disarmingly motherly Motherboard, scowling First Cat joins a motley crew of diversely carbon- and silicon-based allies, led by the pearlescent Queen of the Moon. They’re in a race to the finish—diverted occasionally by, for instance, a relentlessly punny comic-book interlude featuring a pair of literal and figurative Pool Sharks. They ultimately triumph thanks to teamwork and moxie. Following a celebratory party and toasts to “new friends…and steadfast comrades” (and, of course, “MEOW”), the story’s energetic, brightly colored panels close with a reveal of the next volume. (“I always hate it when comics end by announcing a sequel. SO CRINGE!” declares an authorial stand-in.) It can’t come too soon.
File under “laugh riot.” (Graphic science fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2024
ISBN: 9780063315280
Page Count: 272
Publisher: HarperAlley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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