By Margaret Peterson Haddix
4Rbooks: 3/6, grades 5+ - 8
Amazon rating: 4.8/5, grades 3-7
Good Reads: 4.01/5
Common Sense Media: 4/5, ages 8+
Pages 435
Synopsis:
Chess, Emma, Finn and Natalie have escaped the alternate universe, but Mrs. Greystone is still trapped there, and now Natalie’s mom, Ms. Morales is trapped there, too. No one knows how much longer they will have before the evil society makes an example of them.
The four children uncover more clues to be able to return and find themselves trapped in the alternate Morales household where Natalies parents are still married, and her grandmother is still alive. There seems to be no way to escape and rescue their parents, but as before, unlikely allies come out to help.
Working together again, the children set up a trap to bring their parents to the house during a big political rally an attempt to rescue them and get everyone home, before they are caught and used as political tools for the evil government.
Parental Guidance: medium-high
The children are now considered abandoned as both mothers are missing.
Natalie readily admits to how she manipulates her dad to get what she
wants.
As part of the evil ness of the other society, people are used as
“scapegoats;” caged in public and people throw things at them.
Prisoners have been sedated with drugs to keep them quiet.
The children are chased through the house and gunfire is heard in the back
ground.
Other Natalie’s grandmother is shot.
Someone attempts to catch the children to use them against their mother.
Natalie teaches the other children the “fine art of lying.”
Inadvertently Chess causes someone to have a bad allergic reaction to help
the children get away.
Recommendation:
There is a standard expectation that the second story in a trilogy is the “meh” story; just paving the way to the final chapter without any major substance of its own (think part two of Back to the Future). That is how I felt about this story. Where the first book was a quick and easy read, this was more of a slog. 80+ percent of the action takes place in the “other” Morales home in the alternate dimension. Much of it is the children moving from one room to another avoiding other people in the house. That could have been exciting but went on for a long time. There is an exciting finish, it’s just too bad it takes so long to get there. I will be looking forward to reading book three soon to see if it was worth reading through this one to get to the finale.
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