Once Upon a Tim

January 31, 2022
Diverting from anything seen at the Round Table, Gibbs (the Spy School series) brings his lighthearted touch to medieval times in this energetic series starter. When a nefarious monster absconds with Princess Grace of a neighboring kingdom, cowardly Prince Ruprecht seeks knights to join him on his rescue. Since, according to self-described peasant Tim, “the worst part of being a peasant isn’t really what we don’t have. It’s what we can’t do,” he and his best friend Belinda sign up for tryouts, hoping to change their fates. In doing so, they enter into a dastardly plan concocted by Ruprecht and court advisor Nerlim, who aren’t actually seeking knights (the kingdom can’t afford them following a bad investment) but “people who they could fool into thinking that they were knights.” A comic quest follows, with scares and laughs abundantly on offer. Sketch-style b&w art by Curtis (Penguin and Moose Brave the Night) visualizes the paper white–skinned cast’s hijinks. Tim’s chatty, entertaining narration, which includes ample potty humor and the occasional vocabulary “IQ booster,” also touches on lessons about stereotypes and unconscious bias throughout the chatty, madcap adventure. Ages 7–10.

March 1, 2022
Grades 2-5 Tim and his friend Belinda (disguised as a boy), two peasants during the Middle Ages, seize an opportunity to become knights by accompanying a cowardly prince and his ineffectual wizard on an expedition to save a princess from the dreaded Stinx that has captured her. After an action-packed journey through the Forest of Doom, down The River of Doom, and across the Chasm of Doom, they reach the Stinx's lair. Gibbs peppers his prose with entertaining side comments as well as "IQ boosters," explaining terms such as malodorous, iconoclast, and infinitesimal, while maintaining the pace of the narrative. This giddy romp through a medieval setting, complete with menacing trolls and gigantic, bloodthirsty butterflies, is the start of a promising series from the author of Spy School (2012) and its sequels.

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March 1, 2022

Gr 3-5-A quest to save a princess turns out to be nothing like the fairy tales suggest. Narrated by Tim, a peasant boy with a surprisingly rich vocabulary and complete knowledge of all the things that don't exist in his world, this romp follows Tim and his best friend Belinda, who seize the opportunity to join Prince Ruprecht and Court Magician Nerlim as they head off to rescue Princess Grace (who, it turns out, doesn't actually need to be rescued). Along for the adventure are Ferkle the Village Idiot (only pretending because it's the family business) and Rover, Tim's Fr-dog (an enormous frog who was once a dog... oh, it's a long story). The prince isn't brave, the magician can only do card tricks, and the monster isn't so very monstrous. Along with the enhanced vocabulary and extreme silliness, there is discussion of societal expectations. All characters are cued as white. VERDICT Will kids understand all of the references? Possibly not, but the humor, enhanced by Quentin Blake-esque illustrations, will definitely find an audience with kids looking for a quick, funny read.-Mara Alpert

Copyright 2022 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2022
Thinking that it's better to be fake knights than real peasants, Tim and his best buddy, Belinda, sign up to rescue a captured princess. Unaware that they've been snookered into a dastardly scheme, the two youngsters hear that Princess Grace from the next kingdom over has been carried off in the claws of a fearsome and funky "stinx" and volunteer to accompany (reputedly) brave and noble Prince Ruprecht and his (reputedly) powerful magician Nerlim on a rescue mission. Accompanied by village idiot Ferkle, whose habit of shoving mud in his pants effectively lowers the level of humor even further, the two ersatz knights weather the Forest of Doom, the River of Doom, and a "troll bridge" across the Chasm of Doom despite a suspicious lack of assistance from either the prince or the magician...and arrive to discover that neither the stinx nor the princess is quite as expected either. In fact, the princess ends up being the rescuer ("That's what you call irony," she comments) when Ruprecht and Nerlim announce their intention to seize her and do away with any inconvenient witnesses. Tim and Belinda are rewarded with promotions for their efforts; readers will come away with both a cogent warning from Gibbs about the dangers of falling for fake news and better vocabularies due to his penchant for flagging significant words like gullible and malodorous in the narrative and then pausing to define and use them in sample sentences. Along with a full-spread map, Curtis supplies frequent pen-and-ink sketches of the cast in comical poses and straits. The races and ethnicities of the characters are not specified in the text, though cover art depicts characters of various skin tones. Budding heroes defeat class and gender expectations as well as the occasional monster in this wry outing. (Fantasy. 8-12)

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