Author: C. Alexander London
Publisher: Philomel
Eleven-year-old twins Oliver and Celia Navel live on the 4-1/2th floor of the Explorers Club with their father, Dr. Navel. Their mother, Dr. Navel, has been missing for years. So when an explorer shows up with a clue as to where his wife could be, Dr. Navel drags Oliver and Celia to Tibet to find her. Once there, the twins fall out of airplanes, encounter Yetis, travel through waterfalls, and end up in the Demon Fortress of the Warrior King where they - just possibly - might find their mother and save their father from the Poison Witches. Thing is, they would much rather be watching television. And if their trip doesn't work out as planned, the twins could end up as slaves to Sir Edmund Thitheltorpe III, an evil explorer with breath that smells like boiled carrots, who has it in for the whole Navel family.Review
Loved this book! Just loved it. It was fun mixed with tension mixed with mystery mix with more fun. I tore through it because there was so much going on that I couldn't stop - the pace was fantastic. It was like a wild roller coaster ride that included yaks, monks, scary airplanes and a whole lot of need of TV. I do have you tell you that with a mix like that the book risked going over the top - being to crazy that I could not in anyway buy into it and enjoy. That just didn't happen. Even though a lot of what happened was so crazy that we all know it wasn't possible but I believed it. I believed every wild rump of it!
Ok let me talk about why I believed it. That would be the two main character Oliver and Celia. They were fantastic. I completely loved their dry sense of humor, and their obsession with TV. The love they have for TV is amazing! And they way they described their shows and how much they knew them was so over the top it couldn't be anything but funny! I also loved that from these two explorer who raised their children around explorers came twins that only wanted to explore what the next TV show would be! It was a fun contrast. But what was even more fun was that their parents still made them go on all these adventures even though they hated them. And the kids had great complaints about why they were so awful. The funny thing was I understood why they'd hate them! They lived the danger first hand. They just wanted to stare at the tv where dramas gave them dramas etc. I guess that once you've been bitten by a poisonous snake you'd just rather stay home and watch it happen to someone else! The funny part is, you catch glimpses of the maybe just a tiny tiny bit liking to explore, but of course they'd never ever admit that! Admitting might mean they miss their favorite shows even more. But as the adventure they accidentally find themselves in develops it becomes clear that all the adventures they've gone on with their parents has stuck whether they admit it or not.
The twins do have one other topic besides tv that they think about - their mother who disappeared while searching for the Lost Library of Alexandria. She has been gone for several years, and the twins do wonder what has happened to her. The mother's disapparnce does play a role in the adventure they find themselves in. Her disappearance and a cast of shady characters and the mystery that also keeps the reader reading. Where is their mother? What happened? Is she helping them now? Loved looking for all the answers to these questions! Just another aspect that kept me reading.
Final Thought: Fun! Fun! Fun! with lots of twists and turns that kept me guessing.
Best stick-with-you image: Falling from the plane
Best for readers: Who like a fun fast mystery filled read
Best for ages: 9+
For the Guys? YES! Great adventure (duh!) and a pace that never lets up.
Now I want to share a giveaway that C. Alexander London is hosting! Here are the details:
I wanted to let you guys know about a contest I've launched to celebrate the release of my new book, We Dine With Cannibals
With the help the help of SMITH Magazine's Six-Word Memoirs project, I'm asking readers to share their own most accidental adventure in Six Words. One randomly selected winner will get a Kindle!
My Six Word Accidental Adventure ("Surprise revolution took away my cartoons") tells the story about how I got the idea for The Accidental Adventures series.
You can read the back-story on SMITH's site: http://www.smithmag.net/
All the Accidental Adventures Kindle Contest (AAKC!-I love a good acronym) details are here: http://www.calexanderlondon.
Readers can enter on Twitter or on SMITH Magazine's Website http://www.smithmag.net/
Plus there's a Bonus Prize! Signed books for a lucky winner who helps share the contest on twitter with the #AccidentalAdventures hashtag
What are you waiting for???? Go!!! Enter!!!!
this sounds fun!!
ReplyDeletehere's my review of catching jordan! stop by?!
http://lindsaycummingsblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/arc-review-catching-jordan-fun-read.html