The Curse of the Werepenguin

May 15, 2019
An unwanted orphan awakens to his destined werepenguin powers and faces an evil immortal threatening war and domination under penguin rule. Twelve-year-old boy Humboldt thinks his only talent is bolting under beds until he's adopted by Baron Chordata of Volgelplatz, Brugaria. In Volgelplatz, where the full moon shines every night, penguins terrorize the villagers for fish sticks under the baron's tyrannical leadership. Like the baron, Bolt has the ability to understand penguin thoughts and transform under the light of the moon, but all he wants is a family. His dream may never come true if he fails to defeat the baron as foretold in prophecy. Woodrow presents Bolt's adventure as a story within a story, narrated by the penguin caretaker at the St. Aves Zoo. Illustrations accompany the text, highlighting moments of drama and action. While Bolt's story forms the central thread of the tale, the narrator shifts the focus among characters, including Annika, a 12-year-old bandit. All the strands of the story tie neatly together in the resolution. Apart from two minor characters (a bandit and a witchy fortuneteller) the cast of characters is white. Although there's nothing unique about the chosen-one plot, this series opener's overall outrageous sense of humor has a high appeal. As irreverent, sarcastic, and strange as murderous, barking penguins. (Fantasy. 8-12)

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August 1, 2019

Gr 3-6-Bolt Wattle has lived at a miserable orphanage for as long as he can remember, but he dreams that his parents will someday return for him. When he is abruptly adopted by Baron Chordata and sent to far-away Brugaria, he wonders if his family is claiming him at last. In Brugaria, all is not well: Bolt arrives at a dusty, crumbling castle after an alarming encounter with some villagers, and bands of rogue penguins roam the landscape. Worse, far from the father figure Bolt has dreamed of, Baron Chordata appears to be a boy no older than Bolt himself. At the stroke of midnight the Baron bites Bolt in the neck, and Bolt discovers the Baron's terrible secret: he is a werepenguin, and now, so is Bolt. Bolt has three days to reverse the transformation and stop the Baron from leading the penguins into battle against the villagers, or he will be cursed to remain a werepenguin forever. This slapstick story is light on horror, character development, and logic, but heavy on gross-out humor and fish stick jokes. Bolt is occasionally assisted by Annika, the world's fiercest bandit whom nobody has ever heard of, but neither she nor any other character experiences significant growth. Readers who enjoy the trappings of horror without any genuine chills or thrills are the best audience for this story. VERDICT An additional purchase where goofy humor circulates well.-Misti Tidman, Mansfield/Richland County Public Library, OH

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2019
Grades 5-8 Preteen orphan Humboldt Bolt Wattle's sharp longing for family leads him into some peculiar pickles after he's suddenly summoned from the Oak Wilt Home for Unwanted Boys to the remote fishing village of Volgelplatz, where he's bitten by fanged werepenguin Count Chordata?a shapechanger whose very name causes bystanders to scream and faint every time (every time) it's mentioned. Distracted though he may be by a new, voracious appetite for raw fish, Bolt has but three days to prevent both his own permanent transformation and an invasion by the Count's army of mind-controlled penguins. Getting help and hindrance in roughly equal measures from local residents (notably Annika, an aspiring young bandit, and a group of orca worshippers led by a baguette-wielding Prince of Whales), he ultimately prevails in a preposterously strung-out climax that also sets the stage for a veritable barrage of family revelations and reunions. Blithely tweaking genre tropes and clich�s as he goes, Woodrow will leave readers with a taste for such diversions?not to mention a taste for fish sticks?howling at the moon.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)