Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms: Magic, Mystery, & a Very Strange… (original 2012; edición 2012)

A charming middle school adventure. Confusingly called Small Change for Stuart i> in the UK. ( )

Get ready for a magical adventure in England. When Stuart Horten and his family move to his father's sleepy little hometown of Beeton, little does he know that he is in for the adventure of a lifetime. While his parents are very tall, Stuart is small for his age. He is 10, but looks 8. It doesn't take long for Stuart to learn that his great-uncle, "Teeny-Tiny" Tony Horten, was short too. But good things come in small packages, and Stuart learns that Tony was a magician. Unfortunately, Tony disappeared during World War II and was never heard from again.

Soon after moving to Beeton, Stuart finds eight threepenny bits and a cryptic note in a magic money box. It seems that great-uncle Tony had left behind his magical workshop. According to the note, if he's the right sort of boy to find it, he can have it. So with nothing in particular to do, Stuart sets out on his bike to discover great-uncle Tony's lost legacy. However, when dealing with magic and magicians, things aren't always straight forward. The clues are scattered around town, but each clue has a price - a threepenny bit. To complicate matters, great-uncle Tony's old house is scheduled for demolition soon. Not only is Stuart running out of threepenny bits, but he's also running out of time. Add to that a set of identical triplets, April, May, and June Kingley, who live next door and are budding journalists, and the mystery seems overwhelmingly unsolvable. With the odds stacked against him, Stuart presses on, but realizes he will never be able to do it all alone. That's when he finds help in the most unexpected person.

The Bottom Line: This new series is fast-paced and easy to read. Kids will relate to Stuart as he struggles with his height issues and tries to fit into a new place. After all, making new friends is never easy especially when your parents are bit eccentric. As he tries to solve the mystery of what happened to his great-uncle, Stuart uncovers a variety of clues hidden in puzzles. Readers will enjoy solving the puzzles with Stuart and following the clues to a magical end. Along the way he actually learns about friendship, trust, and persistence. This enjoyable read will appeal to both boys and girls in grades 4 - 6 who are interested in mysteries and magic. Additionally, the author manages to sneak in new vocabulary words without slowing down the story. Simply fantastic!

This review also appears at the Mini Book Bytes Book Review Blog. ( )

Lots of fun. Well written if not hugely original. ( )

Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms is a charming read. It manages to combine elements of some of my favorite American books from childhood - Encyclopedia Brown, Harriet the Spy - while managing to have a decidedly British flavor of storytelling. In its storytelling style it reminds me most of Joan Aiken with a bit of Roald Dahl mixed in. If you're thinking that this is high praise, it is. This book really delivers.

Horten is a misfit kid, plopped into a new environment, and given that very best thing of all - an adventure. There are puzzles and clues and destinations and secrets and evildoers plus it's all one great big scavenger hunt. Along the way Horten gains confidence and makes friends in unlikely places. Everything wraps up into a delicious ending and the entire book was an enormous pleasure to read. Highly recommended for middle grades and up (that includes all the rest of you that really need a good kids' book to read). ( )

I have to go away, and I may not be
able to get back. If I don't return, then my
workshop and all it contains is yours if you
can find it—and if you can find it, then
you're the right sort of boy to have it.

Affectionately,

Your uncle Tony

P.S. Start in the telephone booth on
Main Street.

Back cover: When ten-year-old Stuart stumbles upon a note daring him to find his great uncle's hidden workshop, full of wonderful mechanisms, trickery, and magic, he sets out on a Willy Wonka-like adventure of a lifetime. In order to find the place, Stuart must believe the unbelievable—while dodging the annoyingly prying eyes of his triplet neighbors, April, May, and June. With clues to follow, puzzles to solve, and the quirkiest characters, this uniquely charming fiction debut by comedienne Lissa Evans is sure to enchant middle-grade readers—and believers—everywhere.

Stuart Horten is tens-years-old and short for his age. This is unusual since both his parents are "very tall." They are also clever people, hence Stuart's name: S. Horten. Mom is a researcher in the medical field and Dad is a cruciverbalist—writer of crosswords puzzles—and he loves to
speak words any kid would consider odd and embarrassing.

I was just thinking of going for a brief perambulation.
This whole area was sylvan.
An epistle for you, said his father, placing the envelope on the table.

This clever insertion of difficult and unusual words, with the definition placed in the dialogue, all without stopping a beat in the flow of the story, reminded me of the Lemony Snicket series A Series of Unfortunate Events.

The Horten's move away from the home Stuart treasures. He will also miss all the parties his friends have already planned for the summer. To say the least, he is one unhappy kid when forced to move. The family returns to Beeton, the child home of Stuart's dad. In Beeton, Stuart cannot find any other kids to play with and becomes bored and snarly with his parents. Still, the first day brings him an adventure he will never forget.

One day, Stuart's Great Uncle Tony disappeared. The young man simply vanished. Before he evaporated that Christmas Eve, Tony went to Stuart's father's home, but he was asleep. He left the then boy a small coin box. Mr. Horten still has the box, using it to hold paper clips. Stuart finds a fake bottom on the box and opens it. Inside are enough coins to keep them from rattling. The adventure of a lifetime, meant for one young Horten, but taken on by another many years later, begins. Would it even be possible to find clues or the workshop after all these years?

Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms is the debut novel from Lissa Evans. Ms. Evans has written a smart, convoluted adventure for Stuart. It was nearly impossible to lie down this page turner, before finishing. The adventure segments and clues are ingeniously linked together leading to an impossible climax that will have every reader thinking "The workshop was there, all this time?"

I love the tone of the book. I liked the pacing, the rhythms of sentences, and the distinctive voices of each character, including the town of Beeton. Beeton residents are quirky characters, some deliciously fun, others delightfully ruthless. Stuart takes on the mystery of his Great Uncle Tony's disappearance—as is a ruthless magician who wants Tony's workshop full of secrets. Add in identical triplet girls, who follow Stuart trying to get a story for their homemade neighborhood newspaper, and you have a book that middle grade kids will devour.

The year 2012 is proving to be a year full of wonderful debut novels for many new authors. Lissa Evan's Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms is near the top of that growing list. Guerdons, please!

book courtesy of the publisher, Sterling Publishing
Original review at Kid Lit Reviews:
http://kid-lit-reviews.com/2012/08/16/hortens-miraculous-mechanisms-magic-myster... ( )