The Last Last-Day-of-Summer by Lamar Giles (review)
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- The Last Last-Day-of-Summer by Lamar Giles
Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-328-46083-7 $16.99
E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-358-04721-6 $9.99
Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-7
Cousins Sheed and Otto Alston, pro adventurers known as the “Legendary Alston Boys of Logan County,” know that their hometown of Fry is a strange place. It gets even stranger when the odd Mr. Flux tricks Otto into using a magical camera that freezes everything and everyone in time (leaving people’s mouths just free enough to express their displeasure). An alternate dimension of “Clock Watchers”—various time-oriented beings such as Minute Men, Second Guessers, and Father Time himself—seems to seep into Fry, causing panic amongst the stationary masses, and although the Alston Boys are on the job, they fear this may be a bit over their heads. It turns out the magical camera was the work of the mischievous Mr. Flux, a so-called “Missed Opportunity” seeking revenge on both time and humans, and the Alston Boys must enlist the help of other anthropomorphized time-based puns, clever turns of phrase, some humans, and a semi-mysterious time traveler to stop him. Giles (Spin, BCCB 1/19) gives his middle school–aged African-American protagonists unique style and admirable substance; Otto is the more bookish (literally taking notes peppered throughout the text) and Sheed the more athletic and sociable, but both are exceptionally competent and loyal to each other. While the pair manages to fix time in this adventure, an underlying distress suggests readers may enjoy greater depth in upcoming visits to an already cleverly fantastical and fantastically clever universe. Final illustrtaions not seen. [End Page 297]
