The Frankenstein Journals

June 1, 2014

Gr 4-7-Many 14-year-old boys feel awkward, but J. D. suffers more than most. His eyes are different colors, one leg is longer than the other, and his feet are huge and different sizes. He's also an orphan. It makes a crazy kind of sense when the orphanage tells him his real father is Frankenstein's monster and gives him Victor Frankenstein's original journal. J. D. sets out to find the nearest thing he has to a family: relatives of the people whose body parts were used to create his father. Standing in his way is the legendary doctor's pretty but evil daughter Fran Kenstein, who schemes to find the relatives first and use them to build her own monster. The rapid-fire plot wastes no time, whisking J. D. around the globe from Antarctica to California in search of family from whom he inherited various body parts. Sonneborn cleverly links the body parts with strengths J. D. didn't realize he had (a detective's eye, an explorer's feet) and gives characters names that sharp readers will recognize (Mr. Shelley, detective Sam Hammer). Colorful, full-page illustrations and J. D.'s witty doodles add strong visual appeal. There are 18 chapters, but the work is clearly divided into two separate narratives. The ninth chapter reaches a climax that sets up the hero's next adventure, which should begin right away, but instead, the following chapter unnecessarily recaps the events of the first half; it's odd, but readers will likely overlook it. Will J. D. find more cousins and his famous monster father in the next book? Only his nose-or his ear, hand or arm-knows. Readers who love monsters, mildly gross humor, and action-packed silliness will want to join him on his quest.-Marybeth Kozikowski, Sachem Public Library, Holbrook, NY

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2014
The discovery of a detailed journal kept by his patchwork dad's creator prompts a child with mismatched parts of his own to start tracking down his many "cousins."Only just found in the box in which 14-year-old J.D. (for John Doe) had been left as an infant at Mr. Shelley's Orphanage for Lost and Neglected Children, Dr. Frankenstein's notebook not only clues the boy in to his parentage (or at least his father's identity), but provides tantalizing leads to the original owners of dad's components. As J.D. has inherited eyes of different colors and hands and feet of different sizes, he figures that he's related to said owners-and so sets out to find them or, more likely, their descendants. His search acquires particular urgency thanks to Dr. Frankenstein's amoral daughter, Frances Kenstein, who is likewise on a quest to recreate her father's magnum opus using body parts with the same DNA. Repetitively noting how "cute" she is and uttering "Don't panic," and "I'll figure something out" with mantralike frequency, J.D. rescues an explorer in Antarctica and a would-be young police detective in LA from his acquisitive rival in this two-episode opener. Though occasionally given to clumsy turns of phrase, his narrative is stocked with jokes, blotches, gross bits, typeface changes, side notations, sketched vignettes and color illustrations.Spindly the plotline may be, but it's greened up with a few yuks and rises from an unusually fertile series premise. (Light fantasy. 9-11)

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