A charming, environmentally oriented fantasy quest.
A mergirl continues her search to uncover her mysterious origins.
In the second book in the Alea Aquarius series, Alea and her friends, the Alpha Cru, sail to Scotland, following the discovery of a mysterious message in a snow globe inside a whale’s belly: “All ye who can read this message, come to Loch Ness.” Once there, Alea and enigmatic crewmate Lennox are forced to continue their journey to the loch by land. Alea has a crush on Lennox, but there are so many similarities in their stories and magical powers, she worries they might be siblings. When the pair finally reach their destination, what they learn leads to as many questions as answers, setting up the Alpha Cru to continue their adventures in the sequel. Translated from German, this sincere story effectively uses magic to convey the importance of environmental stewardship. The books are best read in order: Stewner further develops characters who were introduced in The Water’s Call (2025), adding layers of intrigue and emotion to the story. Readers also learn more about Alea’s magical abilities in this volume, including her ability to understand water speech and read emotions and intentions through the colors she sees in the water. As before, the dialogue feels quaint in ways that may not resonate with contemporary readers, although the expanded magical elements compensate for this weakness. Most characters read white.
A charming, environmentally oriented fantasy quest. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: April 8, 2025
ISBN: 9781646900442
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Arctis Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious.
If you made a recording to be heard by the aliens who found the iPod, what would you record?
For 11-year-old Alex Petroski, it's easy. He records everything. He records the story of how he travels to New Mexico to a rocket festival with his dog, Carl Sagan, and his rocket. He records finding out that a man with the same name and birthday as his dead father has an address in Las Vegas. He records eating at Johnny Rockets for the first time with his new friends, who are giving him a ride to find his dead father (who might not be dead!), and losing Carl Sagan in the wilds of Las Vegas, and discovering he has a half sister. He even records his own awful accident. Cheng delivers a sweet, soulful debut novel with a brilliant, refreshing structure. His characters manage to come alive through the “transcript” of Alex’s iPod recording, an odd medium that sounds like it would be confusing but really works. Taking inspiration from the Voyager Golden Record released to space in 1977, Alex, who explains he has “light brown skin,” records all the important moments of a journey that takes him from a family of two to a family of plenty.
Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-18637-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016
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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