Shaky—but with undeniable potential.
Magical stagecraft, steampunk mechanisms, and glittering faerie dust intermesh in a debut middle-grade fantasy.
Felix Cassius Tiberius Carmer III may be a shy and shabby orphan, but his tinkering genius has encouraged Antoine the Amazifier and his traveling show to try their luck at a prestigious competition for stage illusionists. While exploring the host city, Carmer accidentally joins forces with one-winged faerie princess Grettifrida (or, as she insists, Grit) to foil the schemes of an evil industrialist enslaving faeries as a cheap source of power. First in a projected series, this adventure overflows with imaginative conceits; unfortunately, the disparate genres feel slapped together with little consistency or depth in a jarringly unmoored world. There is barely any sense of setting and, except for a stereotyped Romani fortuneteller and a discordant Yiddish toast, no reference to ethnicity. The book’s default for both humans and faeries is white. Carmer makes for a charming hero—clever, compassionate, and exceedingly humble—but Grit, despite her refreshingly matter-of-fact representation of disability, is little more than a selfish brat. Meanwhile, every potential hint of interesting nuance to the villains is hurriedly deflated by a bout of mustachio-twirling depravity. If the narrative voice is a bit too arch and the whimsy somewhat forced, the insidious creepy horror and galloping pace are still effective, right up to the unexpectedly gruesome fate of the nefarious evildoers.
Shaky—but with undeniable potential. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: April 25, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-61620-663-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Breathtaking dragon battles peppered with musings on forgiveness, teamwork, and love.
Lunar Jones joins other planetary guardians to unravel clues from Proteus and save the solar system in this third series entry.
Lunar, a 15-year-old dragoon, is known far and wide and regarded as a hero on Mars, but his personal life contains tension. He’s bonded for life with Dread, the savvy war strategist King-Dragon of Mars, but the Dread Knights are leaving one by one to pursue other opportunities. Though he’s unhappy about this, Lunar doesn’t try to hold them back. Sorting out his feelings for Rose Proctor is another can of worms. Plus he’s preparing for the upcoming Solar Summit, which is held by the planetary dragons once every 500 years. Reminiscent of a dragon family reunion, the summit includes equal measures of information exchange, camaraderie, and squabbles, but the appearance of a shape-shifting Fear Dragon brings everyone to laser-focused attention as they rally against a monstrous unseen enemy. Lunar’s first-person narration presents him variously as an awkward teen, pep-talking mentor, and battle-savvy commander. The dragon battles rock, innovations abound, and the Proteus messages tantalizingly reveal themselves right up until the cliffhanger ending. Names and skin tones cue some ethnic and racial diversity among the smart, strong teenage crew members surrounding the white-presenting Lunar. Knowledge of the previous books is essential to fully appreciate this volume, which explores characters and situations from earlier entries; a prologue introduces the formidable new characters Doom and Gloom.
Breathtaking dragon battles peppered with musings on forgiveness, teamwork, and love. (Fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9781665982016
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2026
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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