Knock About with the Fitzgerald-Trouts (Fitzgerald-Trouts Series #2)

by Esta Spalding, Sydney Smith (Illustrator)

Overview

"Witty, full of heart and genuinely fun to read...a wacky, lighthearted romp." -- The New York Times Book Review

Welcome to the further adventures of the plucky Fitzgerald-Trout siblings, who live on a tropical island where the grown-ups are useless, but the kids can drive.

In this second installment, the delightfully self-reliant siblings continue their search for a home. This time, their pursuit will bring them face-to-face with a flood, illegal carnivorous plants, and the chance to win an extraordinary prize at a carnival. Will they finally find a place to call home?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316298612
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	05/09/2017
Series:	Fitzgerald-Trouts Series , #2
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	52 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Esta Spalding grew up on a tropical island where she never wore shoes. She has since lived all over the world. When she's not writing, she kayaks, bakes, and assembles whale skeletons with her husband, a marine biologist.

Editorial Reviews

"It's goofy, sweet, and buoyant with good will—Pippi Longstocking for our more hyperactive times."—Horn Book


"Spunk, spirit, and ingenuity only begin to describe these fascinating children."—School Library Journal


"With quick chapters, a compelling mystery, clever kid characters, and humorous antics galore, this lighthearted, cheer-worthy adventure should find an easy audience among middle-grade readers."—Booklist

From the Publisher

02/01/2017
Gr 4–6—In this sequel to Look Out for the Fitzgerald-Trouts, Kim, Kimo, Pippa, Toby, and new baby sister Penny, along with their patient goldfish, are kicked out of the house when Kimo's wayward father, Johnny Trout, returns from years at sea and reclaims the home for himself and his unpleasant pet pig. Once again, "find a house" tops Kim's daily list. In the search for a home, the children gain, lose, and then regain a boat that Johnny and a mysterious friend are using for nefarious purposes. The siblings help their laundromat owner friend, Mr. Knuckles, find love, and they discover the reason their beloved island suffers from "knockabouts" (earthquakes). Much like the Boxcar Children or the Baudelaire orphans, the Fitzgerald-Trouts carry on, regardless of the horrible, indifferent, or horribly indifferent adults they encounter. Spunk, spirit, and ingenuity only begin to describe these fascinating children. Upper elementary and lower middle school readers will connect with determined Kim, strong Kimo, and stubborn Pippa. Toby has just started to come into his own, and who can resist sweet baby Penny? VERDICT Libraries that purchased the first in the series should add on to the collection, and those new to the series should catch on to these engaging youngsters and purchase both titles.—Sarah Knutson, American Canyon Middle School, CA

School Library Journal

2017-02-01
Natural disasters, aggressive wildlife, parental abandonment, responsibility for a baby, and looming poverty make life on a tropical island less enjoyable than one might imagine. The siblings met in Look Out for the Fitzgerald-Trouts (2016) are back, and this time they're in search of a home, as they have outgrown the car they sleep in. Ranging in age from infant to 11, Penny, Toby, Pippa, Kimo, and Kim have "varying degrees of brown hair and brown skin" and are related via five different mothers and fathers, none of whom is reliable and all of whom have left the resourceful children soured on adults. An encounter with a mysterious stranger in a dark forest eventually leads to the discovery that one of the fathers is even more dastardly than they had realized, and it is up to the children to save the day—and their island home—from ecological destruction. The unnamed tropical island they inhabit seems modeled on Hawaii in its flora, geographical features, residents' fondness for ham, and local speech (a pseudo-pidgin described dismissively), but it is a bland and characterless rendition of the original. With the exception of Smith's delightful pen-and-ink illustrations, the book does not quite pull off its attempt at a wry and whimsical tone: the children's lives seem more like drudgery than adventure, their personalities are two-dimensional, and the world they live in is neither fantastical enough to inspire delightful escape nor realistic enough to evoke deep immersion in the story. A miss. (Fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews