A cosmic journey that will have young adventurers rocketing back for further missions.
Intrepid readers must make tough decisions to save a spaceship’s crew from a hostile alien takeover.
The premise of this interactive tale? You’re a young intergalactic geologist who’s just completed a successful first mission to a distant planet’s rocky moon. It’s time to go back into cryosleep for the long voyage home. But when you awaken, something’s not right. You’re still nowhere near Earth, and the emergency alarm is blaring. The computer informs you that extraterrestrial life has been detected on board. Who among your ship’s close-knit crew can you really trust? In fast-paced, second-person prose, readers are asked to make critical choices such as casting their vote for who among the cast is most likely to have been infected by an alien life form and then following a winding path to discover the outcome of that decision. Scene-setting and character development take a back seat to rollicking side quests, but fans of Choose Your Own Adventure–style stories will find much to love regardless. Fresh, angular cartoon illustrations detail the mysterious alien invasion and stoke suspicion, though they don’t always quite align with the text. Images of the characters imply an ethnically diverse crew. With tricky visual puzzles integrated throughout and more than 45 possible endings (some deadly), this tale will invite readers to return again and again.
A cosmic journey that will have young adventurers rocketing back for further missions. (ship map, answer key) (Science fiction. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9781665977630
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: today
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
A nifty high-seas caper for chapter-book readers with a love of adventure and a yearning for treasure.
It’s not truffles but doubloons that tickle this porcine wayfarer’s fancy.
Funke and Meyer make another foray into chapter-book fare after Emma and the Blue Genie (2014). Here, mariner Stout Sam and deckhand Pip eke out a comfortable existence on Butterfly Island ferrying cargo to and fro. Life is good, but it takes an unexpected turn when a barrel washes ashore containing a pig with a skull-and-crossbones pendant around her neck. It soon becomes clear that this little piggy, dubbed Julie, has the ability to sniff out treasure—lots of it—in the sea. The duo is pleased with her skills, but pride goeth before the hog. Stout Sam hands out some baubles to the local children, and his largess attracts the unwanted attention of Barracuda Bill and his nasty minions. Now they’ve pignapped Julie, and it’s up to the intrepid sailors to save the porker and their own bacon. The succinct word count meets the needs of kids looking for early adventure fare. The tale is slight, bouncy, and amusing, though Julie is never the piratical buccaneer the book’s cover seems to suggest. Meanwhile, Meyer’s cheery watercolors are as comfortable diagramming the different parts of a pirate vessel as they are rendering the dread pirate captain himself.
A nifty high-seas caper for chapter-book readers with a love of adventure and a yearning for treasure. (Adventure. 7-9)Pub Date: June 23, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-37544-3
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2015
Eeney meeney miney moe, catch this series before it goes! (Adventure. 7-9)
Two kids get up close and personal with some great works of art in this first in a new series.
Tiger Brooks is used to his little sister’s fantastical stories. So when the top-hatted orange pig she describes turns out to be not only real, but a next-door neighbor, Tiger enlists the help of his kooky new friend, Luna, to investigate. It turns out the pig works for the reclusive painter Viola Dots. Years ago a magical picture frame swallowed up her only son, and she’s searched for him in artworks ever since. When Tiger’s tinkering starts the magic up again, he and Luna are sucked into a reproduction of Henri Rousseau’s Surprised! or Tiger in a Tropical Storm, hungry predator and all. After meeting and failing to rescue Viola’s son in this adventure, the series is set up for the intrepid pair to infiltrate other classic paintings in the future. Backmatter provides information on the real Rousseau and his life. Oliver keeps the plot itself snappy and peppy. While there are few surprises, there’s also an impressive lack of lag time. This is helped in no small part by Kallis’ art, which goes from pen-and-ink drawings to full-blown color images once the kids cross over into the painting. Tiger is a white boy, and Luna is a dark-haired Latina.
Eeney meeney miney moe, catch this series before it goes! (Adventure. 7-9)Pub Date: April 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-448-48087-9
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
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