Flatiron View Books
ISBN: 978-0615401232
Published Oct 26, 2011
Trade paperback, 400 pages
Kevin is a twelve-year-old boy with an amazing imagination. Impersonating his favorite superhero, he uses it to deal with grief over his father's death which happened a year ago. When a mysterious package arrives in the mail with a remote control-like gadget called the Influxitron, Kevin is suddenly hunted down by a ruthless killer and his henchmen who will stop at nothing to get it back. Once Kevin discovers what the gadget does, his whole life changes in ways he never expected.
Seeing how much I enjoy action-packed
middle-grade novels, I was excited to read this book with my
daughter. She took one look at the book cover and grimaced. Okay,
clearly this book is aimed at boys—my son had no objection to the
cover. But I managed to convince her to read it with me. Overall, we
enjoyed Kevin's adventure, especially since the storyline has time travel in it. It has funny moments and
we loved the ending. My daughter guessed where the story was headed
way before me. She's such a smart cookie. But the author still
managed to include a twist at the end that surprised us.
There is a lot of action in this book,
with the chase scenes taking up two-thirds of the book. After a while, though, it became just too long, and we had to suspend disbelief at how
easily two young boys escaped professional killers. It reminded me of
a Robert Ludlum novel. Kevin and his friend Tony were chased
non-stop. Later, they run into Kevin's sister Betsy and her
pizza-delivery boyfriend Scratch (who was funny) and more chasing
ensued. Kevin is a quirky but likable kid, whereas Betsy comes across
as dim-witted and plays a minor role even though the synopsis of the
book seemed to indicate otherwise.
Had there been less chasing and more of
the Influxitron part in the story (throughout most of the book we
were waiting for Kevin to figure out how to use it, rather than it
being a useless object until the very end) we think this story could have been a better adventure. We would have been more emotionally engaged as
readers. However, barring all that, this was a fun book to read and will appeal to boys
who love action-packed stories.
Note: This book includes religious
exclamations, but is otherwise a clean read.
I will count this book toward the following challenges: TBR Pile Reading Challenge
I will count this book toward the following challenges: TBR Pile Reading Challenge
Reviewed by Laura
Disclosure: Thanks to the author for sending me this book for review. I was not compensated in any other way, nor told how to rate or review this product.
Post a Comment
Thank you for commenting! I appreciate your feedback.