Charming, if slightly twee.
A summer sailboat adventure helps a girl discover her mermaid heritage in this translated German import.
Alea has grown up believing she has cold urticaria, an allergy to cold water, which has left her terrified of exposure to the ocean, lakes, rain, and even glasses of cold water. But after her foster mother has a heart attack and ends up hospitalized, Alea is wandering around forlorn when she encounters the Alpha Cru, a trio of youths who live aboard an old sailboat. Assuming the name “Alea Aquarius,” she joins them as they make their way from Hamburg, Germany, to the Dutch port town of Renesse, seeking information about Alea’s mysterious biological mother. They play rock music on street corners for money and add a fifth crew member with magical abilities. Eventually, Alea learns that her allergy was a ruse that hid her true identity as a mergirl. With its brisk pacing and the kids’ quaint, old-fashioned dialogue (“Goody gumdrops,” “Alea told me you all were strange birds…But only now do I understand what she meant”), this episodic series opener is a fun family read-aloud that’s reminiscent of the Boxcar Children series. The young people, who range in age from roughly 9 to about 18, have been through traumatic experiences, which are handled with a light touch; they largely come across as emotionally unscathed. Most characters present white; one crew member, who’s from France, is cued Black.
Charming, if slightly twee. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: March 11, 2025
ISBN: 9781646900435
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Arctis Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: today
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
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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