Unlucky Charms

February 1, 2013

Gr 4-7-The crew introduced in Cold Cereal (HarperCollins, 2012) is back: a pixie named Merle; the wizard we know as Merlin; four human children; a rock star who has been knighted; an extremely tall librarian; a fire-breathing finch; a mechanical owl; a uni-horned cat; a leprechaun; and a man with a rabbit head. Their mission: stop the evil fairy queen Nimue, who has established the cereal company Goodco, which is putting Intellijuice in breakfast cereal for kids, abusing members of the Fey, and has had a hand in kidnapping the Queen of England and replacing her with two goblins. The plan: capture the goblins and expose the false queen, thus taking down Goodco. Will this motley crew of adventurers be able to rescue the Queen and save the two worlds of the British Isles? Readers will have to wait for the next installment to find out. Drawing on Arthurian legend and including every kind of fairy, brownie, ogre, and other mythical creature imaginable, Rex has once again struck a wonderful balance between adventure, fantasy, and absurdity. Readers will want to have read the first in this series since this sequel is a true continuation of events and characters without too much background. This series is well worth exploring since its wide range of characters and complex plot will keep readers engaged.-Clare A. Dombrowski, Amesbury Public Library, MA

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2013
Grades 4-7 The converging stories in Rex's epic Cold Cereal (2012) continue here, and most of the same elementsShakespeare, King Arthur, Celtic legend, Freemasons, and of course, sugary cerealmake return appearances. It's all in an effort to prevent the Goodco Cereal Company from taking over the world and to thwart that corporation's most recent evildoing, the kidnapping of the Queen of Englanda task which necessitates a magical journey through time and space to an alternative world called Pretannica. The characterswhether kids, fairies, or leprechaunsare many, and the large chunks of dialogue move their quest rapidly and wittily along. Rex's delicious sense of humor is much in evidence here and informs not just his themes but also the interior black-and-white drawings and settings (he describes an untended garden as a place that looks like where all the troublemaker plants came to smoke ). While more casual nibblers, or those who haven't already digested the prequel, may be overwhelmed and confused, Rex provides great fodder for readers who really like to dig into their adventures as they would a hearty and well-balanced breakfast.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

December 1, 2012
In this hectic middle volume, Rex's notably diverse crew of human, part-human and nonhuman allies splits up in hopes of scotching the schemes of the sorceress Nimue, who is out to create a worldwide army of mind-controlled "sugar zombies" through magically enhanced breakfast cereal. Rex fills in background as he goes, from doughty pixie Prince Fi's search for his brothers Fee, Fo and Denzil to Merle Lynn's expose of his sword-in-the-stone trick ("It was magnets"). The action here takes place mostly in England, where the discovery of a portal to magical Pretannica allows separate missions to seek help from the queen of the Fay and to rescue the kidnapped queen of England, who has been imprisoned in what she thinks (with some justice) is a Harry Potter story. Meanwhile supergenius Emily, sasquatch ex-librarian Biggs and the others stay stateside to work on cryptic clues (what would a story like this be without cryptic clues?) and prevent Nimue from seizing the portal. Much of the frequent black-and-white art was not available for review, but those examples included exemplify Rex's usual hilarity. A mad mix of attacks, chases, squabbles and revelations goose the main plot along while setting the stage nicely for the closer. (Fantasy. 11-13)

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July 1, 2013
Friends Scott, Erno, and Emily, having revealed the sinister breakfast-cereal plots of the evil Goodco company in Cold Cereal, must now attempt to rescue the Queen of England from a fairy plot in this zany Arthurian reimagining. The enormous cast of characters is hard to keep straight, but the flippant cultural satire maintains its charm.

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)