Broad comedy, full of monsters and lighthearted fun.
Wendell “Waffles” Wyler and his grandfather return in a second madcap homage to B-movie monster films.
The book opens with a recap of the events from The Monstrous Adventures of Mummy Man and Waffles (2024), making this sequel accessible to new fans. Grandpa Wendell, formerly a special effects and makeup artist for “spooky movies,” kept props and models stored in his Shriekport, Maine, basement until a flood led to the activation and unfortunate release of the monsters. Now the dastardly Doctor Gargo has reconstituted himself and escaped with the Brain and the Measle Weasels in tow, headed to Hollywood to unleash more nefarious monsters on the world. Traveling via Monster Car, our heroes follow a trail of red polka dots left by the Measle Weasels on a cross-country road trip to fend off disaster. Medusa joins Grandpa, Waffles, Tanya (Waffles’ best friend), and the earnest Mummy Man and his pet turtle, Frank, on the race to intercept Doctor Gargo and stop his nefarious plan. Encounters en route with the Hoboken Werewolf, the Tornado With a Face, and other creatures threaten the mission. The result is a funny, breathless series of challenges for the motley crew before nearly everything turns out okay in the end (with a setup for the next adventure). The human characters read white. Final art not seen.
Broad comedy, full of monsters and lighthearted fun. (recipe) (Humor. 8-11)Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2025
ISBN: 9780063254879
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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