The Magnificent Flying Baron Estate

March 1, 2017

Gr 5-7-Ten-year-old W.B. wakes one morning to find that his house is floating. "Not floating. Flying," his inventor parents correct him. The year is 1891. The flying house and its contents are off to Chicago to enter a race around the country. W.B.'s parents, P and M, hope to win the $500 prize so that they can hire an assistant for their scientific endeavors, but their plans are thwarted by Rose Blackwood, who hijacks the house and its inhabitants. Rose wants the prize money so that she can break her dastardly brother Benedict out of jail. Told from W.B.'s point of view, the novel is action-packed and adventure-filled. In W.B., Bower has created a likable, relatable main character. Chubby, slightly clumsy, and friendless, W.B. is an only child who feels like a misfit in his own family. He is surprised to learn that the glamorous Rose feels like a failure as well. She is a law-abiding citizen-"I've never even been late returning a library book"-in a family of villains and criminals. Each chapter title is pulled from the final words of that same chapter, creating a nicely rounded narrative effect. Wordplay abounds; for instance, when competitors in the race assault the house with fruit, P exclaims, "Those bananas are a classic sign of gorilla warfare!" VERDICT Readers who enjoyed the movie Up and "Wallace and Gromit" will embrace this humorous tale-all while learning about science, language, humanity, and family in the bargain.-Gina Petrie, Catawba College Library, NC

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2017
Waldo only dreams, now and then, that his parents turn themselves into a squirrel and a prairie dog.The rest--the flying house, the hijacking, the wild aerial race, and climactic dust-up with the "dastardliest criminal in the world"--turns out to be all too real. The "heavyset" lad ("chubby," to quote fierce but frank ally Iris, who also goes by "Shorty" because she's 3 feet tall) is annoyed but not too surprised one 1891 morning to discover that his brilliant if remote inventor parents, Sharon and McLaron, have turned the house into a flying machine to enter a certain continent-spanning race. Numerous obstacles to winning first prize arise on the way, including a competitor's hurled bananas and a holdup by criminally decent Rose Blackwood in an effort to prove herself to her evil clan by springing her older brother, Benedict, the Arizona Territory's most fearsome bandit, from jail. Benedict turns out to be a baddie, all right, but no match for the Barons and Rose. Plans go wrong but turn right by the end, just in time for Waldo's 11th birthday and a new invention, inspired by his recurrent dream, that promises further distinctly unusual family adventures. In Grochalska's scattered vignettes there is some diversity of skin color in crowd scenes, but Waldo and the rest of the main cast are white. Even sans actual rodents, just about as wild as one might hope the West can get. (Adventure. 10-13)

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