By Russell Ginns
Amazon rating: 4.9/5, grades 3-7
Good Reads: 4.06/5
Common Sense Media: Not Reviewed
4Rbooks: 3/6, grades 3-6
310 pages
Synopsis:
Uncle Paul has been kidnapped by the SNOW, an organization of thieving mathematicians who want to learn of the secret, world-wide network of transportation systems. Samantha, Nipper and their father need to work together to rescue him. Dennis the pug will help, too.
There will be trips to the secret rooms under the salt mines of Michigan (where there are substitute salt duplicates of world-famous statues) and a return trip to Egypt. Meanwhile Buffy is in LA trying to ger her play made into a movie, and Mrs. Snipper is hoping to join WRUF. At the same time, Nipper will continue to try and get the Yankees back from his troublesome neighbor Missy Snodgrass before they lose 147 games in a row and are kicked out of baseball, while at the same time learning more about her strange parents, if that is who they really are.
Parental Guidance: low
Some scenes of mild, cartoonish danger for the children.
Recommendation:
I’m beginning to think that this book series is like the Star Trek movie series where every other novel (movie) is a good one. For the Star Trek series, it was the even number movies that were the best, for the Samantha Spinner series it’s the odd books. This is book 4 so not one of the better ones. Like book two, there wasn’t anything overly original to this story. Another secret organization, another member of the family in danger, and more puzzles to solve. It was a road trip to places the author has taken us before.
Book 3 was helped by the addition of new characters, Fiona and Lainey. Unfortunately, they only make token appearances in this story. If you’ve enjoyed the series so far, you won’t be disappointed in this novel, but it won’t keep you on the edge of your seat to finish, either. There is definitely a book 5 at some point, hopefully the “rule of odds” will kick back in and an exciting story will be coming.
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