Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel.Ĭhainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.Įvery four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. 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… 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. Liam’s musings on what it takes to be a good, responsible father are dryly comical but also charmingly earnest. Even if you’re Completely Doomed, you’ve got to be impressed.” On the heels of the Carnegie Medal–winning Millions (2004) and Framed (2006 ), Cottrell Boyce has created a riveting, affecting, sometimes snortingly funny “what-if” scenario that illuminates the realities of space travel as it thoughtfully examines the nature of adulthood. The good news is, the view is amazing: “When you’re in it, space looks like the biggest firework display ever-except it’s on pause….

To further complicate matters, he’s an imposter: a tall-for-his-age kid with premature facial hair pretending to be a dad so he could participate in the secret civilian space flight in the first place-a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory–style contest in which the winning children get to go on the ultimate thrill ride, an actual rocket. He’s lost in outer space, incommunicado, in a Chinese spacecraft called Infinite Possibility. Twelve-year-old Liam Digby is Completely Doomed.

Cosmic by frank cottrell boyce