A cliffhanging conclusion will ensure that readers who’ve enjoyed these improbable tales will be impatient to find out about...
The further adventures of Samantha Spinner involve rubber-nosed clowns, a gross of chinchillas, and a Broadway play.
In the first installment of their search for their missing uncle Paul, Samantha Spinner and the Super-Secret Plans (2018), 11-year-old Samantha and her annoying little brother, Nipper, traveled to France, Italy, and Egypt. They didn’t find their uncle, but they outwitted an organization called the Royal Academy of International Ninjas (RAIN). Here, they visit Mali, Indonesia, and Peru, using supersecret underground transport, and take a train to New York to see the opening of older sister Buffy’s Broadway play, all the while trying to avoid the clowns of the Society of Universal Nonsense (SUN). The narrative in this second series entry includes explanatory background, but the Spinners’ adventures are so bizarre that new readers may find it hard to catch up. Still, fast-paced action and zany humor could keep them turning pages anyway. Samantha is clever and focused, Nipper impulsive and impatient (his impulsive, unintentional purchase of 144 chinchillas is dealt with by the Komodo dragon he brings home); both contribute to finding clues and occasionally ignore what readers will see as obvious. With no physical descriptions, they’re presumably white, which is confirmed on the cover. Interspersed in the narrative are more supersecret plans—of the Borobadur Temple, fire hydrants, accelerated moving walkways, the Great Mosque of Djenné, Lucy the Elephant, and the USS Intrepid. All but the elephant have roles in this adventure—perhaps she’ll appear in the next book.
A cliffhanging conclusion will ensure that readers who’ve enjoyed these improbable tales will be impatient to find out about the WIND. (further information) (Adventure. 9-12)Pub Date: March 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-2004-9
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Nov. 20, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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