Henry Clark
My rating: ★★½
ISBN: 978-0316206662
Publisher: Little, Brown
Date of publication: July 2, 2013
Age: Grades 3 - 7
Genre: Science Fiction
Themes: gadgetry, interplanetary portals, alien invasion, adventure, mind control
The three of them found the sofa while they were waiting for the bus, just plopped down by the curb, probably waiting for a trash pickup. When searching the cushions, River, Freak, and Fiona discover a rare and (as eBay soon reveals) valuable zucchini-colored crayon. Upon marching up to the house of the sofa's owner to return the crayon, they are pulled into a zany plot hatched by their eccentric neighbor to stop an evil billionaire from enslaving the entire world. Because the crayon is the key.
The story is thoroughly inventive; it takes quite the imagination to hatch a plot to takeover the world based on something found in a sofa. The characters are endearing, each with their own challenges that shape their actions. And some (younger) kids may really go for this. It is, after all, a rather fantastical adventure. So stop here if you want to read it.
Because, oh my, I could barely finish it. And I only did so because it was a book club book. It was definitely not my style with the far-fetched plot and extremely convenient coincidences that make these kids capable of stopping a billionaire alien. So. Many. Literary shortcuts. (Which, if you remember, was pet-peeve #14.) It's cute, it really is. But I really couldn't enjoy it fully there as it got close to the ending.
Find it at your library or on Amazon
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