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. Cut to five years previous, in a prequel to the whole series. 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.”). There, he witnesses fellow inmate Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) escape in a giant Robo-Suit (later reduced to time-traveling trousers). 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”). Not that there aren’t pranks and envelope-pushing quips aplenty.

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. In the diverse supporting cast, readers can sense the earnestness behind the author’s crafting of the narrative, but some of the minutiae need refining.Īn earnest message about discovering the magic in the world and finding the family that suits you. Locations feel hastily sketched, which also makes Carter feel unrooted. Carter is a winsome enough protagonist, but he fails to achieve three-dimensionality because the narrative pace does not pause long enough to fully ground him in readers’ imaginations.

This is acclaimed actor Harris’ ( Choose Your Own Autobiography, 2015, etc.) first foray into children’s literature (and fiction in general), and it bears all of the acne scars, wide-eyed optimism, and awkwardness one might expect from a freshman effort. Vernon-two men with an adopted daughter-and a crew of teenage magicians who are misfits like himself and who teach him to believe in the redemptive powers of magic and family. When his uncle goes too far, Carter flees to the town of Mineral Wells, where he meets Mr. Forced to live with a distant relative known as Sly Mike who is a magician and a con artist, the white lad is taught wonderful magic tricks but is forced to employ them to aid and abet his “uncle’s” criminal activities. Magic and mystery abound in this latest celebrity novel.Īfter his parents vanish mysteriously, Carter’s life takes a turn for the worse.

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