With a hero so devoid of sympathy, this story sinks despite the buoyancy of its splendid illustrations.
Sick of his status as an intergalactic dung-shoveler, a young boy makes plans to become the King of Space.
Here is another variant on the boy-dreams-of-ruling-the-universe tale, with little tweaks here and there to make it Duddle’s own, but it’s threadbare in terms of originality. Rex lives in the Gamma Quadrant on a moog (cows in spacesuits) farm. He might be a futuristic cowherd now, but he has something else in mind. He cons a friend of his into helping him build warbots and a Dastardly Dung Ray to make good his King of Space scheme. He subdues the Western Spiral and then crowns himself, which brings down the wrath of the Galactic Alliance. After Rex kidnaps the daughter of the emperor, the Alliance corners Rex, who gives up and lets his mother save his bacon. Yes, all of this is told with tongue in cheek, but Rex is really a schmuck. He lies to his friend, wastes part of the galaxy, kidnaps a girl (and demeans her: “Would my future queen like some choco-goo? Would you? Huh?”), then cravenly throws the disaster in his mother’s lap. Story aside—but then, what’s the point?—Duddle’s artwork beguiles in a way that Rex never will, with highly inventive deep-space creatures in the steampunk mode, minus the steam.
With a hero so devoid of sympathy, this story sinks despite the buoyancy of its splendid illustrations. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6435-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Templar/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Only for dedicated fans of the series.
When a kid gets the part of the ninja master in the school play, it finally seems to be the right time to tackle the closet monster.
“I spot my monster right away. / He’s practicing his ROAR. / He almost scares me half to death, / but I won’t be scared anymore!” The monster is a large, fluffy poison-green beast with blue hands and feet and face and a fluffy blue-and-green–striped tail. The kid employs a “bag of tricks” to try to catch the monster: in it are a giant wind-up shark, two cans of silly string, and an elaborate cage-and-robot trap. This last works, but with an unexpected result: the monster looks sad. Turns out he was only scaring the boy to wake him up so they could be friends. The monster greets the boy in the usual monster way: he “rips a massive FART!!” that smells like strawberries and lime, and then they go to the monster’s house to meet his parents and play. The final two spreads show the duo getting ready for bed, which is a rather anticlimactic end to what has otherwise been a rambunctious tale. Elkerton’s bright illustrations have a TV-cartoon aesthetic, and his playful beast is never scary. The narrator is depicted with black eyes and hair and pale skin. Wallace’s limping verses are uninspired at best, and the scansion and meter are frequently off.
Only for dedicated fans of the series. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4894-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre.
Ice princess Lina must navigate family and school in this early chapter read.
The family picnic is today. This is not a typical gathering, since Lina’s maternal relatives are a royal family of Windtamers who have power over the weather and live in castles floating on clouds. Lina herself is mixed race, with black hair and a tan complexion like her Asian-presenting mother’s; her Groundling father appears to be a white human. While making a grand entrance at the castle of her grandfather, the North Wind, she fails to successfully ride a gust of wind and crashes in front of her entire family. This prompts her stern grandfather to ask that Lina move in with him so he can teach her to control her powers. Desperate to avoid this, Lina and her friend Claudia, who is black, get Lina accepted at the Hilltop Science and Arts Academy. Lina’s parents allow her to go as long as she does lessons with grandpa on Saturdays. However, fitting in at a Groundling school is rough, especially when your powers start freak winter storms! With the story unfurling in diary format, bright-pink–highlighted grayscale illustrations help move the plot along. There are slight gaps in the storytelling and the pacing is occasionally uneven, but Lina is full of spunk and promotes self-acceptance.
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre. (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: June 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-35393-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
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