Ever since he was a baby, maps have been apart of Alton
Barnes’ life. His parents lack of name planning resulted in him being named
after a city. When his family members found out, they gave him map-related
gifts. It wasn’t too many years later that he covered his whole room with maps
of various locations, animals, and things related to Earth. Now in 5th
grade, Alton loves to make maps of not only places, but things he observes such
as how many times the principal says “um” on morning announcements, the various
smells around the school, or what lunch dishes cause students to go the
bathroom the most. All is well until he shows his maps to Quint, the cool kid.
Now all his maps are missing and someone is holding them hostage unless he does
what they say. If he fails, they will release them all over the school. With
some maps more hurtful than others, it is up to Alton and Quint to figure out
who took the maps and to get them back before time runs out. Will they succeed?
Narrator, Keith Nobbs does a great job of drawing the reader
into Alton’s world. The characters are likable and realistic and Nobbs unique
voices for each character are fun to listen to. The plot is simple, but
engaging. The author’s natural transitions between humor, mystery, and internal
dialogue are well-done and Nobbs does a great job of moving back and forth in
his narrative without losing the listener. People are fans of Clements’
realistic fiction books will not be disappointed and newcomers will have an
easy time jumping right in to this story.
5 stars. Grades 3 to 5.
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