This series finale reads like a whirlwind.
Gilly Cobbler and her friends from Fairy Tale Reform School must prevent the villainous Rumpelstiltskin from casting a curse that will wipe out all of Enchantasia.
Traveling on Blackbeard’s pirate ship, the group heads to Shipwreck Cove in hopes of finding genie Darlene’s lamp. After a quick battle with the guardian kraken (a misunderstanding), they realize Stiltskin has already beaten them there! The FTRS teachers confirm, via magic mirror, that Gilly and her family are somehow tied to Stiltskin and the curse—a foreboding message, especially since Gilly’s sister Anna now leads the child villains of the Stiltskin Squad. In order to learn about her heritage and hopefully unlock some of her latent fairy powers, Gilly visits her estranged fairy grandmother. But with time running out, will the group save FTRS and their fairy-tale world as they know it? As is appropriate for a series climax, action and drawn-out tension abound. The quickly reached resolution is abrupt, as are the spaces between the near-continuous battles, making for a very bumpy read. If readers have stuck with the series through the other five installments, at least this book will offer both an ending and a peek at more of Gilly’s family. Gilly is white, but her classmates are diverse, both in race and in species.
This series finale reads like a whirlwind. (Fantasy. 9-13)Pub Date: May 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4926-8016-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
Full of puzzles to think about, puns to groan at and references to children’s book titles, this solid, tightly plotted read...
When a lock-in becomes a reality game, 12-year-old Kyle Keeley and his friends use library resources to find their way out of Alexandriaville’s new public library.
The author of numerous mysteries for children and adults turns his hand to a puzzle adventure with great success. Starting with the premise that billionaire game-maker Luigi Lemoncello has donated a fortune to building a library in a town that went without for 12 years, Grabenstein cleverly uses the tools of board and video games—hints and tricks and escape hatches—to enhance this intricate and suspenseful story. Twelve 12-year-old winners of an essay contest get to be the first to see the new facility and, as a bonus, to play his new escape game. Lemoncello’s gratitude to the library of his childhood extends to providing a helpful holographic image of his 1968 librarian, but his modern version also includes changing video screens, touch-screen computers in the reading desks and an Electronic Learning Center as well as floor-to-ceiling bookshelves stretching up three stories. Although the characters, from gamer Kyle to schemer Charles Chiltington, are lightly developed, the benefits of pooling strengths to work together are clear.
Full of puzzles to think about, puns to groan at and references to children’s book titles, this solid, tightly plotted read is a winner for readers and game-players alike. (Mystery. 9-13)Pub Date: June 25, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-375-87089-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: April 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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