Readers who have followed the series will have a leg up, but other book lovers and fantasists will find some kindred souls...
When Frankie falls down a rabbit hole, Abby; her nemesis, Penny; and her good friend Robin all follow.
Although they don’t find Frankie immediately, they soon recognize their surroundings. There’s something familiar about them: “The hole we fell down. The hallway with locked doors. The garden outside. The potion that says DRINK ME.” Usually in the Whatever After series, Abby enters the familiar world of fairy tales with her little brother, Jonah. She knows what should happen even though the two always change the courses of the stories. Now she finds herself in a book world, and she doesn’t want to admit to the other girls, especially Penny, that she has never read it. To make matters worse, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is one of the few books Penny says she’s read. Soon the girls discover that she never read the whole book, and she balks at every opportunity to participate in the fun. Frankie is pictured as a person of color on the back of the book and described as having dark skin. The others girls are white, with different hair colors (and personalities) to distinguish them. When they catch up with Frankie at the tea party, she is totally into the adventure. She is the real bookworm of the group, and she’s read Alice and its sequel many times.
Readers who have followed the series will have a leg up, but other book lovers and fantasists will find some kindred souls here. (follow-up games and activities) (Fantasy. 8-10)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-74664-9
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
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
Ironically, by choosing such a dramatic catalyst, the author weakens the adventure’s impact overall and leaves readers to...
A group of talking farm animals catches wind of the farm owner’s intention to burn the barn (with them in it) for insurance money and hatches a plan to flee.
Bond begins briskly—within the first 10 pages, barn cat Burdock has overheard Dewey Baxter’s nefarious plan, and by Page 17, all of the farm animals have been introduced and Burdock is sharing the terrifying news. Grady, Dewey’s (ever-so-slightly) more principled brother, refuses to go along, but instead of standing his ground, he simply disappears. This leaves the animals to fend for themselves. They do so by relying on their individual strengths and one another. Their talents and personalities match their species, bringing an element of realism to balance the fantasy elements. However, nothing can truly compensate for the bland horror of the premise. Not the growing sense of family among the animals, the serendipitous intervention of an unknown inhabitant of the barn, nor the convenient discovery of an alternate home. Meanwhile, Bond’s black-and-white drawings, justly compared to those of Garth Williams, amplify the sense of dissonance. Charming vignettes and single- and double-page illustrations create a pastoral world into which the threat of large-scale violence comes as a shock.
Ironically, by choosing such a dramatic catalyst, the author weakens the adventure’s impact overall and leaves readers to ponder the awkward coincidences that propel the plot. (Animal fantasy. 8-10)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-544-33217-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
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