How to Save the Universe Without Really Trying

August 1, 2020
Two tweens face down interdimensional interlopers. In the 31st century, Phineas T. Fogg, heir to the Fogg-Bolus Hypergate and Baked Beans Corporation, lives a luxurious, exceedingly safe, and totally isolated life. While his overprotective parents gallivant around the known universe, Phin sits alone in a skyscraper atop the radioactive remnants of Newark, New Jersey. Back in 21st-century Newark, Lola Ray has been taking care of her Momma and two younger sisters and stanning Dimension Y, her favorite TV show, since her Papa took a research position in Vancouver. When the Ray ladies venture to the airport, Lola sneezes in an X-ray machine, propelling her a thousand years into the future. For millennia, mysterious beings calling themselves the Phan anticipated her arrival, as Lola can answer the "Question of the End." They enlisted Goro Bolus, the Fogg family's avaricious business partner, to secure an interdimensional gateway and established the Temporal Transit Authority to monitor for time travelers. And they've waited--until now. Can Phin and Lola vanquish the Phan and save their dimension? Cusick avoids common middle-grade pitfalls--impudence masquerading as wit, half-formed plotting--to create a well-balanced narrative. While levity lightens the load--and the story is legitimately funny--the focus remains on a perfectly paced adventure. Phenotypic descriptors are reserved for alien species. A promising series debut. (Science fiction. 9-13)

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.