Genre: Middle Grade, Young Adult, Fantasy, Adventure
Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review. The
opinions expressed here are my own.
Synopsis from Goodreads:
After years of running from his tragic past, Jack Yale books
a flight home. With him is a typewriter that is intended to be a gift for his
granddaughter, Elizabeth. The minute Elizabeth’s fingers cradle the large black
and cream keys the machine responses: popping, sizzling, and roaring to life
with a Whiz-Whiz-BANG! Elizabeth quickly discovers the typewriter has powers
beyond anything she has ever seen. The more she types, the more the machine
spells out guarded secrets that need to be revealed in order to set history
straight and remove a curse that has been on their family for centuries. To
solve the mystery, Elizabeth Yale, alongside Jack, will have to crack the code
of the Whizbang Machine. What they find challenges their most basic assumptions
of their family, the history of the typewriter, and even Elizabeth’s father’s
death. The ultimate goal is to remove the curse. The question is: will Jack and
Elizabeth be able to carry out their mission?
My Thoughts:
Any time I can read a book that is so clean, yet so
adventurous, it is a win-win situation. It is a win for me because I can
recommend it to my students and parents. It is a win for my students because
they are in for an adventure they won’t want to end. Most young kids have never
seen or touched a typewriter. They may have seen pictures. They have so many different
fonts available with computers today. The author used old typewriter font
throughout the book so the reader knows when the typewriter is putting out a
message. This is what I call charming.
One of my students thought it was cool because they had seen papers at their
grandmother’s house that looked the same.
The adventures keep readers turning the pages. They are
carried along on the adventure. The reader never feels like they are on the
outside of the story reading along. It is more a feeling of traveling with Jack
and Elizabeth as a third member. It has
a creepy, mysterious feel to it. These are all elements I love in a book. I kept thinking about the dangerous aspects
they find themselves in and if I would be the kind of grandparent to go on that
adventure with a grandchild. I’d like to think I am adventurous enough I would,
or that my grandchildren could persuade me to.
I definitely recommend this book to young and old alike. There are so
many great things about it. You have a curse, a mystery, travel, history, and
one adventure after another. I am definitely anxiously waiting for the next
book by this author.
You can find out more about the author here:
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