Eleven-year-old Vincent Shadow has never been good at sports and is constantly being picked on by his classmates at Central Middle School. But Vincent has a special gift so unusual and problematic that he always tries to hide it from everyone. Vincent is a boy genius. In his top secret lab in the attic, Vincent invents toys that come to him in fully detailed visions. However, when a chance encounter with an eccentric toy maker, Howard G. Wiz, offers him the chance of a lifetime to go from unknown nerdy kid to toy inventor extraordinaire, he soon realizes that playtime is over; and it is time to get “serious” about toys. The question is can Vincent overcome a sabotage attempt by a rival in time to realize his dream? ( )

I loved the cover, and the format of the pages, and this made me think the book was going to be amazing. Unfortunately, it wasn't. It's a cute, fast read, but it was really lacking in the plot. For example, nothing really happened to George Spinowski, other than he didn't win the contest, for wrecking Vincent's kite. Secondly, how believable is it that Vincent would leave his entire lab set up in his old house, and take nothing with him when he moved. The toys are neat ideas, but the story was missing something. He just gives up on his windless kite because it gets wrecked and goes with another idea - that seemed weird to me too. It would be a fun book to read as a kick off to an Invention Convention though. ( )

I read the bookseller advance copy of this book and found it contains cute illustrations, a fun premise, and an exciting conclusion. However, the book suffers from what I call "Professional Syndrome." As with Stephen Hawking's books for children, a professional in a field other than fiction writing wrote this book. The author does a lot of telling through flashbacks, rather than following through with what he set-up, which would have been more fun for kids (Vincent enduring school after turning his skin blue in an experiment). Hopefully, Tim Kehoe will continue to work on his writing and study the early chapter book genre, because this book shows potential. It would have been so much better in the ten-chapter format with illustrations interspersed, rather than collected at the back of the book (the illustrations may be due to it being an advance). If Kehoe learns to hint at the past during the present action, rather than tell all about it, and set-up and follow through in a way that builds suspense, he could more effectively share the wonder and work of toy invention with kids. I will still hand this to kids who already have a strong interest, because they may relate well enough to the character and subject to overlook the staggered pacing.

Review at:
http://hollybooknotes.blogspot.com/2010/01/middle-grade-musings.html ( )