An entertaining thrill that leaves readers wanting more.
T’Challa, I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Wakanda anymore.
In his latest, Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award–winning author Smith (Hoodoo, 2016) weaves an origin tale of T’Challa, the prince of the African Wakanda people who becomes the superhero Black Panther. Readers meet T’Challa while he’s still a preteen, racing through the forests of his homeland with his best friend, M’Baku, by his side. There is unrest in Wakanda, however, and to protect his son from harm, the king sends T’Challa and M’Baku to South Side Middle School in Chicago under aliases, giving them a chance to learn about the outside world. While the overall story is well-paced, readers do not spend long enough in Wakanda for T’Challa’s pre-Chicago character to fully solidify. The novel ably depicts the pressure both boys feel to assimilate into American culture and nicely teases out the tensions and jealousies that simmer below the surface of their friendship. M’Baku, out of T’Challa’s princely shadow for the first time, is in danger of losing himself, while T’Challa must find an identity separate from that which his royal status affords him. At times, the boys’ naiveté about American culture—played for laughs—strains credulity. The tale’s most profound sections show T’Challa grappling with American racial history and the complications inherent in being perceived to be African-American.
An entertaining thrill that leaves readers wanting more. (Fantasy. 9-14)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4847-8764-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Marvel Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2017
Full of puzzles to think about, puns to groan at and references to children’s book titles, this solid, tightly plotted read...
When a lock-in becomes a reality game, 12-year-old Kyle Keeley and his friends use library resources to find their way out of Alexandriaville’s new public library.
The author of numerous mysteries for children and adults turns his hand to a puzzle adventure with great success. Starting with the premise that billionaire game-maker Luigi Lemoncello has donated a fortune to building a library in a town that went without for 12 years, Grabenstein cleverly uses the tools of board and video games—hints and tricks and escape hatches—to enhance this intricate and suspenseful story. Twelve 12-year-old winners of an essay contest get to be the first to see the new facility and, as a bonus, to play his new escape game. Lemoncello’s gratitude to the library of his childhood extends to providing a helpful holographic image of his 1968 librarian, but his modern version also includes changing video screens, touch-screen computers in the reading desks and an Electronic Learning Center as well as floor-to-ceiling bookshelves stretching up three stories. Although the characters, from gamer Kyle to schemer Charles Chiltington, are lightly developed, the benefits of pooling strengths to work together are clear.
Full of puzzles to think about, puns to groan at and references to children’s book titles, this solid, tightly plotted read is a winner for readers and game-players alike. (Mystery. 9-13)Pub Date: June 25, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-375-87089-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: April 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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