Charlie Numbers and the Man in the Moon

September 1, 2017

Gr 4-7-It seemed a legitimate proposal to Charlie: help NASA recover stolen moon rocks. What geek wouldn't want to help NASA? Even the adults were convinced by Anastasia Federov, a former student of Charlie's absent-minded professor father, to allow Charlie and his team of friends, known as the Whiz Kids, to travel for a supposed paper airplane aerodynamics competition in Washington, DC. The rocket company sponsoring the competition is suspected of stealing the moon rocks, and Anastasia wants Charlie and his team to scope them out. But as Charlie and the Whiz Kids get up to speed on paper airplanes, Anastasia and her scary associate, Mr. Porter, start leaning on Charlie to break into the owner's private office and the company lab to look for the stolen items. Now Charlie really is flying by the seat of his pants, using his affinity for numbers to rapidly calculate speed, trajectory, and lift to figure out a way to save himself, his team, their reputation, and the moon rocks from Anastasia and her nefarious plans. There may be just a touch too much science exposition in this follow-up to Bringing Down the Mouse, but it is always interesting and the action never stops for long. VERDICT Another rollicking adventure with Charlie and his friends that will delight followers and fans of heist novels like James Ponti's Framed and Varian Johnson's The Great Greene Heist.-Gretchen Crowley, formerly at Alexandria City Public Libraries, VA

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 15, 2017
Charlie "Numbers" Lewis and his Whiz Kids explore aviation history (and dabble in corporate espionage).Sixth-grader Charlie, a white boy, and his four somewhat diverse friends are very smart in their fields of expertise. They had quite the adventure at Incredo Land (Bringing down the Mouse, 2014); now they've been asked by Anastasia Federov, a former student of Charlie's MIT-professor dad's, to enter a paper-airplane competition. They are to befriend Richard Caldwell, the reigning champ and son of former astronaut (and corporate sponsor of the contest) Buzz Caldwell, and to find out if said former astronaut stole moon rocks from the U.S. government. Of course, nothing turns out the way they expect. Richard's a smart, gracious kid. Anastasia might have faked credentials to get the Whiz Kids into the contest...and faked a lot more than that. Can they figure out what's going on and not come out looking like the bad guys? The Mezrichs follow Charlie's debut with an entertaining-enough thriller dotted with history and science lessons. Though readers will likely give a pass to improbabilities in the story (underground, secret labs and daring escapes riding museum-piece aircraft), improbabilities in the lives of the characters (their parents let their 12-year-olds travel from Boston to D.C. unaccompanied, and another kid sets off fire alarms for fun in a crowded hotel ballroom without repercussions) will leave them scratching their heads and closing the book. More facile than fun. (Adventure. 8-11)

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