Whales on Stilts
A Pals in Peril Tale, Book 1
M. T. Anderson
Beach Lane Books
Fiction, MG Action/Humor/Sci-Fi
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Twelve-year-old Lily Gefelty is nobody's idea of a heroine. She spends most of her life hiding behind her bangs, as good as invisible... but being invisible means she notices things others miss. So when she goes to work with her dad for Career Day, she notices something amiss with the place - inside an abandoned warehouse (in the abandoned warehouse district of town) and protected by armed guards - and with the boss - Larry, a strange man who always wears a burlap sack on his head, rubber gloves on his hands, and has a strange habit of dumping seawater on his face for lunch. She's also not too sure about the outfit's business plan, though her father insists it's just an ordinary business dedicated to building stilts (and other accessories) for whales. Lily, though, is certain that Larry is a mad scientist trying to take over the world... a certainty that only becomes stronger when Larry tells Lily and her father that he's going to take over the world this coming Tuesday.
Lily doesn't know what to do with this information, or how to stop it. She's just the girl nobody notices, not the girl who saves the day. Fortunately, she has two best friends who are famous for saving days: Kate Mulligan, whose exploits surviving monster attacks in Horror Hollow (a suburb off Route 666) have landed her a book series and fan club, and Jasper Dash, boy technonaut, whose steam-powered contraptions and science-based adventures used to have a far greater following (though he still has a lucrative endorsement from Gargletine breakfast drinks). But it's going to take more than Kate and Jasper to stop Larry's evil schemes. It's going to take a new heroine to step up... a heroine like Lily Gefelty.
REVIEW: The title promises over-the-top silliness in the vein of old implausible serials and kid adventurer tales, and the story delivers on that promise in full and then some. Part Lemony Snickett, part Goosebumps, part homage to/satire of logic-light but action-heavy adventure series the likes of which date back well over a century, this is the kind of book that only works if the author fully commits to the gimmick, leans all their weight on the gas pedal, and puts every needle in the red, start to finish, which Anderson gleefully does. The fourth wall gets so many holes in it it's practically a window, which can be a tough trick to pull off but works here. (Some of the humor seemed aimed a little over the heads of the target reader, to the grown-ups reading along - or, like me, reading entirely on our own - not in a crude way, but referencing experiences and cultural knowledge the average youngster likely just doesn't have or hasn't been exposed to yet.) The main characters, despite their inherent exaggeration and silliness, make for a fun trio bonded by genuine friendship, each pulling their weight (even if they're sometimes hampered by the tropes that created them; Jasper Dash's clunky gear-and-steamwork gadgetry was all the rage back in the heyday of his serials and peak Gargletine sales, but is more than a little outdated in the cell phone era, while Kate is often shadowed by a trio of ghostwriters who crank out even more exaggerated versions of her exaggerated exploits so fast they often hit stores before the exploit itself has concluded). That friendship forms an emotional core that makes the story more than a collection of gags and winks, pulling all the elements together to be even stronger than the sum of the parts. The author often intrudes to skip over boring or repetitive parts or add the odd flashback or commentary, plus more than a few one-liners and asides. At the end of the wild adventure, which naturally leaves the door open for future installments (like any good serial), is a "study guide" for classrooms and book groups written by an expert... a guide that reveals far more about the expert's issues than the book it purports to examine. The fact that I was prompted to snicker out loud at work multiple times while listening to this story kicks it above four stars. I'm not sure if I need to follow the Pals in Peril tales further - this feels like a gimmick that, while hilarious once, might not be able to carry more installments without getting stale or repeating itself - but I'd be game to try at least one more.
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