3 Below

July 15, 2012
Leo Fillmore, 11 years old and proprietor of New York City's most engagingly eccentric hotel (Floors, 2011), returns with a juicy, potentially calamitous dilemma. When Leo learns that Merganzer D. Whippet, ex-owner of the Whippet Hotel (now in Leo's capable if fumbly hands) and maker of wacky inventions, had neglected to pay the hotel's taxes to the tune of $700,000, he has to unravel Merganzer's strange instructions in order to save the joint from sale to an avaricious developer. (Actually, it is $7 million, but Merganzer is challenged in the 0's department.) But it is as though Merganzer is speaking in tongues: "Remember!...Four Floogers, a zip rope, and the iron box!...An isle of Penguins, a boy named Twist, Robinson Crusoe!" Carman, however, is an intricate yet bell-clear storyteller, all the many wheels freely spinning but meshed, and soon a Flooger is as obvious and necessary as the pink rhinoceros in the diamond mine. The characters are slap-happy and tomfool without overdoing their weird behavior, though Carman may be at his best in creating the very strange world of the hotel, from its magical, duck-infested rooftop to the Realm of Gears in the super-sub-basement. Then, when all seems lost, in rides the cavalry, as is only right. An adventurous romp, as atmospheric as incense and as smooth as lemonade on a summer day. (Magical adventure. 9-12)

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October 1, 2012

Gr 4-6-Fans who enjoyed Floors (Scholastic, 2011) and want more of the same should be pleased with Leo and Remi's latest excursion. The fate of the wild and wacky Whippet Hotel is once again in the hands of 10-year-old Leo Fillmore. Merganzer Whippet, the eccentric owner of New York City's most unusual hotel, has just discovered that the building is dangerously in debt. The brilliant inventor has recruited Leo and his friend, Remi, and has given them a quest to recover the items necessary to avert disaster. The two boys must venture deep into uncharted territory in the subbasements of the hotel to retrieve what Merganzer needs. This lightweight fantasy adventure provides puzzles to solve, fabulous rooms and inventions to explore, and large dollops of humor meant to tickle the funny bones of reluctant readers. This second installment doesn't deviate from the tried-and-true formula: one-dimensional villains get thwarted, children are given free rein for thrilling adventures without too much danger, and the designer of the drama is conveniently pulling the strings so that everything comes out right in the end.-Stephanie Whelan, New York Public Library

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