The Last Last-Day-of-Summer

February 1, 2019
Can this really be the first time readers meet the Legendary Alston Boys of Logan County? Cousins and veteran sleuths Otto and Sheed Alston show us that we are the ones who are late to their greatness. These two black boys are coming to terms with the end of their brave, heroic summer at Grandma's, with a return to school just right around the corner. They've already got two keys to the city, but the rival Epic Ellisons--twin sisters Wiki and Leen--are steadily gaining celebrity across Logan County, Virginia, and have in hand their third key to the city. No way summer can end like this! These young people are powerful, courageous, experienced adventurers molded through their heroic commitment to discipline and deduction. They've got their shared, lifesaving maneuvers committed to memory (printed in a helpful appendix) and ready to save any day. Save the day they must, as a mysterious, bendy gentleman and an oversized, clingy platypus have been unleashed on the city of Fry, and all the residents and their belongings seem to be frozen in time and place. Will they be able to solve this one? With total mastery, Giles creates in Logan County an exuberant vortex of weirdness, where the commonplace sits cheek by jowl with the utterly fantastic, and populates it with memorable characters who more than live up to their setting.This can't be the last we ever hear of the Legendary Alston Boys of the purely surreal Logan County--imaginative, thrill-seeking readers, this is a series to look out for. (Fantasy. 10-12)

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Starred review from February 25, 2019
In his inventive middle grade debut, Giles (Overturned) riotously scrambles time, moving it backward, forward—and not at all. In the Virginia county that’s home to genial African-American cousins and renowned sleuths Otto and Sheed Alston (whose sleuthing skills are rivaled only by crafty twin sisters), curious goings-on are commonplace, but on the last day of summer vacation, things “get stranger than usual”—by a lot. When Flux, a man with limbs that can stretch “like he was made of taffy,” suddenly appears and instructs the boys to take a photo of their town with his vintage camera, residents become frozen in place and time. TimeStar, a futuristic superhero, then emerges from a portal in the sky and lunges at Flux, launching a madcap struggle between good and evil and the cousins’ quest to unfreeze time. Villainous Flux commandeers Norton Juster–style “agents of time” the Clock Watchers—cleverly depicted personifications that include patriarch Father Time, indecisive Second Guessers, and the Time Sucks, fuzzy platypuslike beasts. Laced with humor, the fantastical time war plays out at a dizzying pace as Giles interjects affecting realism with themes of reconciliation, family, identity, and destiny. Ages 10–12. Agent: Jamie Weiss Chilton, Andrea Brown Literary Agency.

Starred review from April 15, 2019
Grades 4-7 *Starred Review* The last Monday in August may not be the last official day of summer, but Otto and Sheed know it's the last day that counts: on Tuesday, they go back to school, and their days of freedom are over. The two African American cousins, known to all in Logan County as the Legendary Alston Boys, have spent their summer solving mysteries and competing with their rivals, the Epic Ellison Girls, to win keys to the city. But their wish for more summer comes startlingly true when a man appears out of nowhere with a strange, not-quite-right camera, and with one press of a button, he mysteriously freezes time. Except for Otto and Sheed, it seems everyone in town is trapped in a single moment. But the boys are on the case, and as they investigate, they get to know some very interesting concepts, meet people from out of time, and begin to understand how deeply a single missed opportunity can alter a life. Not all YA authors transition seamlessly to middle grade, but Giles (Spin, 2019) manages it with aplomb, spinning a zany, clever adventure filled with surreal humor that never feels forced. Anchored by its genuine characters and buoyed by its true fun, this is an adventure with staying power.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)