While this is not technically a notebook novel, it does have the very heavy, glossy paper of a graphic novel, and has pages interspersed throughout with full color illustrations and the occasional comic strip sequence. The text is a good size, and the pages have a lot of white space. This might be why my reluctant readers were so keen for me to get the next book in the series!

I appreciated that the story did have a brief plot, and was solidly middle grade. There are not enough funny books for middle school age boys that also have a light, age appropriate romance. I love that Rachel is interested in all manner of sports and is a very adventurous character, and Zach's attempts at impressing her are definitely true to life. Hogan is not a very nice character, and has some evil plans up his sleeve, but he's not irredeemable. I would love to see Aaron more fully fleshed out as a sidekick, but he serves his purpose well, along with his media loving cat. Zach's family, although they don't appear often, are delightful as well.

I've never head of Mr. King and his YouTube videos, but apparently the target demographic has. Zach doesn't do a lot of magic in this book, aside from turning back time, but I imagine he will get his powers back in subsequent volumes, which will be fun to read!