Publishers Weekly
04/23/2018
After a nefarious corporation wrests control of Nitro City’s sewers, plumbers are banned, and mutant beasts begin emerging from drains. Since the toilets are constantly clogged at Gloomy Valley Middle School, 13-year-old Sully Stringfellow, who works after school as an “outlaw” plumber’s helper, is recruited to apprehend the “Phantom Clogger” before Taco Tuesday, when, the principal says, “I need every stall open for business.” The premise of Bates’s (How to Make Friends and Monsters) satirical romp gives him free rein with potty puns, yet the humor extends further, fueled by Sully’s wry asides, droll badinage, and a colorful cast that includes a retired super-villain who lives in a secret underground lair; Sully’s crusty grandfather, member of a posse of crackerjack plumbers that guarded the sewers; and the boy’s parents, off in Fiji, where his mother sells repurposed spatulas, and his poet father searches for a word that rhymes with purple. An explosive—literally—finale wraps up this lighthearted, swift-paced saga of good vs. evil in a slimy underworld. Ages 8–12. Agent: Brandi Bowles, United Talent Agency. (Apr.)
From the Publisher
Praise for The Unflushables:
A Parents' Choice Awards (R) Winner!
"Pacey, punchy and with more jokes than you can shake a plunger at, The Unflushables is unputdownable!"—Mo O'Hara, New York Times bestselling author of the My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish series
"Hand this to avid fans of Captain Underpants who are looking for something longer but with ample potty humor and slapstick comedy."—School Library Journal
"50% detective mystery. 50% superhero saga. This book is 100% hilarious. Take the plunge with The Unflushables... Plumbing has never been this much fun!"—John Kloepfer, author of the Monsters Unleashed and Zombie Chasers series
"Half superhero adventure, half noir mystery... In typical pulp crime fashion, corruption and intrigue lead to some entertaining twists in an amusing story of potty play."—The Bulletin for the Council for Children's Books
School Library Journal
01/01/2018
Gr 4–6—In the fictional metropolis of Nitro City, it's all about plumbing. And toilets. And bodily functions. There are mutant creatures living in the pipes and sewers, one of many challenges facing the city's citizens. Sully Sullivan is a 13-year-old with a deep passion for plumbing who worships the craft's heroes of years past—legendary folks who were taken down by a nefarious corporation called Ironwater. Sully is so into plumbing that he becomes the go-to for his school's principal when plumbing problems arise, and collects plumber trading cards. Sully becomes embroiled in a plot to save the city from Ironwater and much adventure ensues. This story is not just full of toilet and bathroom humor and puns—they are the entire story and plotline. VERDICT Hand this to avid fans of Captain Underpants who are looking for something longer but with ample potty humor and slapstick comedy.—Kate Olson, Bangor School District, WI
Kirkus Reviews
2018-01-13
In a tale aswirl with potty humor, a young hero plunges into danger to save his town and the world from an evil sewer—er, supervillain.In days of yore Nitro City was protected from clogs and their nefarious perpetrators by the likes of Drainiac Magee and other costumed members of the Plumbers' League of UnNaturally Gifted Exceptionals—all of whom were declared outlaws when the Ironwater company took over the job of sewer management. But now a rising tide of mysterious leaks, overflows, and mutant subterranean monsters promises to turn the town's massively popular annual Burrito Festival into Plumbageddon. Enter 13-year-old Sully Stringfellow, a natural genius with pipes and valves since birth. He's more or less unfazed by encounters with pop-up washer weasels and a tentacled croctopus, and he's john-on-the-spot (so to speak) when the time comes to trigger a former supervillain's gigantic porcelain Death Flush. The ensuing "cyclo-toiletronic swirl" rockets Sully into Nitro City's Underworld to expose Ironwater's CEO as archvillain Human Waste. Dazzled to discover that the old "sewer soldiers" of P.L.U.N.G.E. are still around (his own grandpa turns out to be the legendary Midnight Flush), Sully gladly accepts an invitation into the fold as a new apprentice. Sully is depicted on the cover as white, and the rest of the cast appears to be white by default.A gold-plated chain puller for readers in alimentary grades. (Fantasy. 10-12)
