Whilst his books often feature relationships, they’re usually tales of unrequited or lost love, inferiority and vengeance and they’re usually framed amongst some pretty dark themes of death, loneliness and isolation.īut, amidst the darker fantasy of his back catalogue, lies a modern romantic gem in Stardust. Realistic black-and-white illustrations trace key events in this unique survival story, and extensive backmatter fills in further factual information about wolves and their habitat.Ī sympathetic, compelling introduction to wolves from the perspective of one wolf and his memorable journey.When thinking of the quintessential love story, the mind doesn’t naturally turn to Neil Gaiman for inspiration. Rife with details of the myriad scents, sounds, tastes, touches, and sights in Swift/Wander’s primal existence, the immediacy of his intimate, first-person, present-tense narration proves deeply moving, especially his longing for companionship. Never imagining the “world could be so big or that I could be so alone in it,” Swift renames himself Wander as he reaches new mountains and finds a new home. ![]() Following a routine of “walk-trot-eat-rest,” Swift traverses prairies, canyons, and deserts, encountering men with rifles, hunger, thirst, highways, wild horses, a cougar, and a forest fire. Crossing into unfamiliar territory, he’s injured and nearly dies, but the need to run, hunt, and live drives him on. ![]() Alone and grieving, Swift reluctantly leaves his mountain home. Swift’s mother impresses on him early that his “pack belongs to the mountains and the mountains belong to the pack.” His father teaches him to hunt elk, avoid skunks and porcupines, revere the life that gives them life, and “carry on” when their pack is devastated in an attack by enemy wolves. Separated from his pack, Swift, a young wolf, embarks on a perilous search for a new home. Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel. 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. The appealing premise is hamstrung by lengthy exposition and sluggish characterization. Readers must make their ways through almost 100 pages of bits of hocus-pocus, hints of intrigue, and weak characterization to start to feel empathy with Wren and to spy the beginning of a tale that eventually includes the Voldemort-esque villain Boggen. ![]() Often, change comes too easily for credibility: the children’s parents allow Simon and Wren to spend a month away with strangers the supposed rivals form a friendship all too quickly Simon, Wren, and adult Fiddlers are strangely willing to accept odd apprentice Jack into their confidence Wren’s thespian mother uses Wren’s idea of reworked Mother Goose rhymes for an annual play. There are creative descriptions of magical places and adventures-some strongly reminiscent of classics of children’s fantasy-but the storytelling has an awkward, sometimes-patronizing quality. They use stardust to disguise their nearby workplace at a college campus from all but insiders, and snippets of old nursery rhymes are a part of their secret codes. The Fiddlers are not violinists they are, apparently, the sole, remaining workers of magic on Earth, revered in days of yore but now living anonymously. Smart, 11-year-old Wren has just tied academic rival Simon at the Science Olympiad Trivia Challenge when a huge, white bird begins the magical apprenticeship of both children to the Ancient and Honorable Guild of the Fiddlers.
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