A Royal Conundrum

October 15, 2023
Grades 4-7 Olive Zang has always felt invisible and out of place. Even her mom and dad barely register her presence, and as they leave on yet another lengthy work assignment, Olive is deposited at a new boarding school for children with artistic temperaments. The island manor turned prison turned reform school turned art school is a wonder, but a series of unusual aptitude tests sees Olive assigned not to an art class but rather to a super-secret training division for elite crime fighters. No one is more shocked than Olive herself, but the small, disparate group of similarly skilled students quickly forms a bond, which is soon tested when a criminal mastermind interrupts a school gala and puts the future of Olive's newly beloved academy at risk. This absorbing series opener wastes no time throwing Olive headlong into adventure. There are hilarious high jinks and outlandish plot points aplenty, plus an astonishingly inventive array of technology that would make even James Bond jealous. It's easy to root for the delightfully diverse spy squad, and readers will eagerly await the next installment of their crime-fighting capers.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 23, 2023
Ever since her grandmother Mimi’s death, East Asian American tween Olive Cobin Zhang—who “never fit in” at school and hardly sees her busy parents—has felt especially alone. Worse, her mother abruptly sends her to a former castle that had been turned into a prison before being converted into a “reforming arts school.” But the prestigious boarding school is a cover; soon, Olive is recruited for an experimental group of covert child operatives to serve as the eyes and ears of the pseudo-government crime-fighting organization No One Can Know, or NOCK. She quickly befriends fellow operative and computer genius Philomena, as well as tough girl Iggy, bookworm James, and laid-back Theo; together, they deem themselves the Misfits. Yee (Maizy Chen’s Last Chance) builds suspense in this spy-adjacent series opener by utilizing an immediate feeling third-person perspective to depict Olive’s grief over Mimi and attempts to make friends while contending with secretive and dangerous circumstances. An in media res opening alongside expressive and animated b&w pencil illustrations by Santat (A First Time for Everything) add dynamism to the text and heighten the rapidly paced narrative. One of the Misfits wears a hijab and another is Black; other supporting characters are depicted with varying skin tones. Ages 8–12.

November 1, 2023
Olive's move to a new school leads to friends, adventures, and greater self-confidence in this series opener. Invisible at school and forgotten by her distracted parents, 12-year-old Olive Cobin Zang is lonely and drifting. Her only source of solace is memories of her loving grandmother's wise words. So, when Olive's parents transfer her to the Reforming Arts School, a Bay Area boarding school located in a former prison, she is ambivalent but curious. The school's unusual approach includes both individual and group placement auditions. These challenges reward often-overlooked skills that Olive and four other idiosyncratic new students turn out to embody: creativity, teamwork, and reasoning. The new pod of five coalesces, exuberant upon learning that they will "join an elite force of specially trained operatives" and become the youngest group ever to go undercover and bring fresh ideas to solving crime. The self-styled Misfits have finally found their calling, but will it last? A crisis is unfolding: The villainous Bling King could keep the school's main benefactor from attending the annual fundraiser, threatening the school's existence as well as the Misfits' own ambitions and newfound feelings of sanctuary. The straightforward storyline has more telling than showing, making it accessible to younger and reluctant readers. Readers will delight in the cartoonlike worldbuilding, zany capers, and plentiful and expressive illustrations. Olive is Chinese American and white; there's racial diversity among the remaining cast. A fantastical blend of quirky characters and goofy adventures. (Adventure. 8-12)

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

December 1, 2023

Gr 4-7-Olive Cobin-Zang's parents are on another one of their business trips, and Olive is off to...reform school? She knows she hasn't always made the best decisions, but this seems a bit extreme. Then she sees RASCH (Reforming Arts School) for the first time, a mystical island campus that emerges from the fog, and she is even more confused. What is this place and why is she here? Strangely, when Olive is placed in what initially appears to be a class of leftovers, she starts to feel a part of something. Soon, Olive and her fellow misfits realize that there might be something extraordinary about themselves after all. In the meantime, a series of high-end jewelry heists have swept across San Francisco and threaten some of RASCH's most important benefactors. If Olive and her friends can't put a stop to these thefts, not only will RASCH lose its money, but Olive might lose the only place that has felt like home in a very long time. Readers will be quick to follow Olive and her diverse friend group as they chase actors/pirates/thieves, search for priceless pastries, and hunt down jeweled cat collars. With quick pacing and over-the-top action, this humorous caper is full of plot twists and zany antics. At times, the pacing may move too quickly, not giving readers enough time to absorb the action or build more suspense. However, the clever clues and outrageous antics will be enough to pull readers through the pages and into the story. VERDICT Clever and funny, this rousing mystery-adventure will be a hit with a wide audience.-Louie Lauer

Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2024
In this series opener, twelve-year-old Olive Cobin Zang is a lonely homebody who feels invisible and uncool. She doesn't play sports and is only good at things she thinks nobody else cares about: board games, trapeze, acrobatics, and tightrope walking. She loves Meggie & Her Fun Family comic books, which portray a lively family's adventures and home-cooked meals -- most unlike her own family. Her parents are always traveling for business, and now they have shipped her off to the Reforming Arts School -- RASCH -- near San Francisco. A former castle turned prison, the building is now a school (think Alcatraz meets Hogwarts) for the "artistically adventurous." Among the other misfits Olive finds she's a good fit, at least within the team of crime-fighting preteens assembled to thwart an expected jewel heist on campus. This reunion of Yee and Santat (Bobby vs. Girls (Accidentally), rev. 9/09; Bobby the Brave (Sometimes), rev. 9/10) offers an entertaining mystery with good kids working together to defeat the bad guys and, in the process, finding their place in the world. Conversational prose, offbeat similes ("Emotions swirled like a smoothie in a blender"), and Santat's black-and-white illustrations (final art not seen) add up to a madcap escapade featuring likable heroes and dastardly villains. Readers will look forward to further installments. Dean Schneider

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2024
In this series opener, twelve-year-old Olive Cobin Zang is a lonely homebody who feels invisible and uncool. She doesn't play sports and is only good at things she thinks nobody else cares about: board games, trapeze, acrobatics, and tightrope walking. She loves Meggie & Her Fun Family comic books, which portray a lively family's adventures and home-cooked meals -- most unlike her own family. Her parents are always traveling for business, and now they have shipped her off to the Reforming Arts School -- RASCH -- near San Francisco. A former castle turned prison, the building is now a school (think Alcatraz meets Hogwarts) for the "artistically adventurous." Among the other misfits Olive finds she's a good fit, at least within the team of crime-fighting preteens assembled to thwart an expected jewel heist on campus. This reunion of Yee and Santat (Bobby vs. Girls (Accidentally), rev. 9/09; Bobby the Brave (Sometimes), rev. 9/10) offers an entertaining mystery with good kids working together to defeat the bad guys and, in the process, finding their place in the world. Conversational prose, offbeat similes ("Emotions swirled like a smoothie in a blender"), and Santat's black-and-white illustrations (final art not seen) add up to a madcap escapade featuring likable heroes and dastardly villains. Readers will look forward to further installments.

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)