The Race to Krakatoa by J.D. Peabody

 

Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy

Source: I won a copy from LibraryThing Early Reviewers. The opinions expressed here are my own.

To say I have found a new author that I absolutely love would be an understatement. J.D. Peabody has created a series that not only kids will love, but educators and book lovers everywhere will love. In the second book in his series we find several things have happened. First, Mrs. Crimp is back, but loveable and protective of the children. She learned some valuable things while she was Inkased.  Everett has found a strength he didn't know he possessed. Bea has learned how much of caring person she is. She feels she is inadequate, but she is not. We have most of the same characters from the first book, including the villains with a few extras thrown in. One in particular is nasty. He was an Inking but used the ink for illegal purposes. He was shunned by the other inklings. He creates his own ink, a mixture of the ink from the first book with his own additives and gets it funded by the very people who hate the Inklings. But we all know that evil has a way of backfiring. The only thing I can say I hated is the ending of the book. I love that it ended in a cliff hanger.  That was brilliant writing. What I hated is that I will have to wait at least a year probably to read a continuation of the story. I could see people forming lines like they did for the Harry Potter books to purchase the next one.  They are that good. I want to jump into the story the way Everett is able to Leapread. I want to become a part of that world. THAT is how good these books are.  The author's nod to other authors and their works, which you can find out more about on his website, have made me want to check out some of the books I was unfamiliar with. It gave me a warm feeling to have him sprinkle in books I grew up with. That is why I say this is a book for young and old alike.  You have got to check these books out.