It's an absolute first... a middle-grade novel that will have readers (okay, some readers) actually wanting to read the dictionary from A to Z.
Twelve-year-old New Yorker Norman Normann isn't interested in the overtly "algogenic" task either when his inscrutable tutor Balthazar Birdsong first assigns it as preparation for an upcoming admissions test. But then Norman starts seeing these newly learned words everywhere. Wasn't the fur-hatted foreign minister in his dad's study from Alfur? What unsettling coincidences could the "B" section hold? Might it hold clues to what his father is doing selling bombs? Initially, Norman's best friend, Leonard Piquant, doesn't grasp Balthazar's methodical madness. "You should be spending what's left of your precious childhood wisely, playing computer games, skateboarding, eating entire bags of Doritos," Leonard says.
The possibly dangerous secrets of Norman's father's unnerving occupation keep the story suspenseful--while Balthazar keeps it philosophical, encouraging his students to literally "go fly a kite" if they really want to learn something substantive. (Standardized testing gets a swift kick in the pants here.) The boys' friendship is realistically goofy and even heartwarming amidst karate "Eeeeeeyaaa!"s and German chicken-butt jokes. Witty twins Emma and Anna (forming the "Quadrumvirate"--see "Q") moderate the boy energy only slightly.
Caldecott artist Chris Raschka proves his pen is mighty, too, in his pleasantly ridiculous, laugh-out-loud funny fiction debut. It's not only a word-and-wordplay extravaganza, but also a boisterous intercontinental adventure involving Alfurian spies, durian, kiteboarding and, perhaps most formidable of all, a tenderhearted mom. (Final art not seen by Shelf Awareness.) --Karin Snelson, freelance writer and children's book editor