Review Detail

Perhaps you've read Frindle, or No Talking, or another of Andrew Clements' many school stories. (Parenthetically, if you haven't, go do it now. You're missing out.) If so, you're used to the bright, modern covers that usually grace his books. This sturdy little hardback is a wee bit different, indeed, different enough that seeing Andrew Clements' name at the bottom is a bit of a surprise. The title seems more old-fashioned, the design more mysterious. It's more 39 Clues or The Spiderwick Chronicles than Ellen Tebbits.

Then you flip through the book and notice the thick paper, the gorgeous font, the charming blue, white and black illustrations. The frontispiece is a double-page spread of a school on a hillside overlooking the sea. Perhaps now, between the name Andrew Clements (which to me almost guarantees readability) and the simple beauty of the physical book, you've decided to dip into the first few pages. Well, don't start until you get comfortable because you're not likely to move again until you're done. It's that good.

On the one hand, that's not surprising. Andrew Clements is a wonderful writer and I'm not sure there's anyone currently writing who crafts a better middle-grade school story.

This book, though, is more than just a school story. Sure, it has issues of friendship, incipient adolescence and parents, but it puts all that against a story of corrupt big business, history, mystery and -- perhaps most of all -- the sea and those who sail upon it. It also puts the children, their courage, strength and ingenuity, at the very center of the story. There is no risk of any parent or teacher ex machina showing up to co-opt the glory. It's right there in the title: We The Children.

My only gripe is that I did not wait until I owned the next book in the series to read the first as right now, I'm ready to hunt down Mr. Clements and demand the sequel. Luckily, the only thing that stands between me and Benjamin Pratt and the Keepers of the School: Fear Itself is a trip to the bookstore as it was released on 4 January. Whew.

See you at the bookstore.