Bad Luck

December 1, 2015
Still struggling to keep up with his wizardly fellow campers, Clay finally discovers his particular talent when the arrival of a large cruise ship touches off a round of assaults and rescues on remote Price Island. It seems there's a secret sleeping at the heart of the island's all-too-active volcano, and Brett Perry, genially vicious owner of the luxury liner Imperial Conquest, has come to seize it for the nefarious Midnight Sun society. Against his horde of well-armed thugs, it would seem that his chubby 12-year-old son, Brett Jr.--plus Clay, airy kleptomaniac Leira (spell it backward), and other residents of Earth Ranch--stands no chance of mounting any effective resistance. But when there is magic in the air and also a new ally who has the young folk envisioning a "Titanic meets Godzilla" scenario, anything becomes possible. More intrusive than ever, "Bosch" not only lays in fussy digressions and many wordy footnotes, he even dedicates the story to himself (with his real name) and inserts himself directly as a character from his earlier Secret series. Along with making his protagonist look a lot ridiculous and, by the end, a little bit heroic, the author strews the tale with fart jokes and gross goo, oblique references to Harry Potter ("expel-your-anus!"), and other crowd-pleasing elements. For readers who like (or at least don't mind) continual authorial asides, a sturdy middle volume. ("backmatter"; map and illustrations, not seen) (Fantasy. 12-14)

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January 1, 2016

Gr 4-6-This second installment in the series picks up just about where Bad Magic (Little, Brown, 2014) left off: with sixth-grader Clay at Earth Ranch, an island camp for delinquent youth that is really a camp for kids with magical talents. This time around, readers also meet Brett, the precocious son of a billionaire-cum-cruise ship owner-and Brett has just discovered that his father may be in the midst of some dastardly scheme. Brett ends up washed ashore on the island housing Earth Ranch, and almost as soon as Clay finds and helps him, strange-well, stranger-things start to happen on the island. This second volume has plenty of Bosch's signature cheekiness and footnotes, and it's chock-full of intrigue, danger, secret missions, betrayal, a magical library within a library, and a creature straight from legend. Longtime Bosch fans will be thrilled at the reappearance of characters from his "Secret Series" (Little, Brown), but the good fun and solid adventure will delight new readers just the same. VERDICT An excellent addition to middle grade collections.-Amy Koester, Learning Experiences Department, Skokie PL

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