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. Otto is brown-skinned the rest of the cast is assumed White by default. The cliffhanger ending-filled with juicy, unresolved revelations-hints at a much-needed sequel. Though the characters, both child and adult, perhaps too readily accept their eerie reality without question, the well-laid clues and interwoven original fairy tales compel the plot forward. Can they stop fate before it’s too late? Marshall’s paranormal middle-grade debut reads like an expanded, kid-friendly version of Ursula LeGuin’s The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas(1973). If the legends are true, Eleanor, Otto, and Pip will be the next to disappear. Local legends say that every 13th Halloween, on their shared 13th birthday, three children go missing. The trio’s strange connections go even deeper, proving to be more than mere coincidence. Otto and Pip can see the things Eleanor sees-the “wrong things”-like the giant black dog with red eyes that seems to be everywhere. But, when Eleanor meets classmates Otto and Pip, she almost immediately starts to stray from her plan. She devises a “How To Be Normal” plan to give herself a fresh start: don’t talk about Mom or things that aren’t there, go to school, and smile. Three preteens uncover the secret, supernatural history of their Oregon town.įollowing her mom’s disappearance in a fire, Eleanor relocates to too-perfect Eden Eld to live with relatives.
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