gcannison's review
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
Description
Evan knows the Titanic sank in the early hours of April 15th 1912, he also knows that he’s on the Titanic – and it’s 11:30 PM the day before.
Now fully experienced with the magical library under their school, Cleo and Evan follow the villainous Mr. Locke into the story of a new book. They find themselves living out a story of the Titanic’s sinking. But they soon discover that Mr. Locke is traveling through this story for more than just the key to open another book in the magical library. They have only hours to learn what it is and get back out of the book’s story before they go down with the historic sinking.
Disclosure
I borrowed this book for free from our library system, it was provided for my personal use. There was no agreement with the author, publisher, or any third party that I would publish a review. The following review is unsolicited, unbiased, and all opinions are my own.
Review – Spoiler Free
This was another fun read. As with the other books in the series (read my review of book 1 here), the story starts off running, characters are interesting, and the plot is fun to follow.
Events from both the previous book and this one smoothly establish a new goal for Cleo and Evan to work toward with the books in the magical library. This develops some unexpected character dynamics, as well as the need for at least another three books in the series. It also raises some more questions about the history and use of the magical libraries that we don’t have answers to yet. I’m hoping that Luper continues to flesh these out as the series continues.
This book is a little different from the previous Key Hunters books, as this is the first story that’s based on a true event. I know very little about the Titanic, so I’m not sure if any specifics were accurate, but I’m guessing from the details that Luper did his research before writing this.
I found the story a little tricky to follow in some spots, especially when Cleo and Evan were running up and down the length and depth of the Titanic – I’m not so good remembering verbal directions, so I definitely got turned around a few times. I will say that I was able to give this a second read; I forgot to write a review shortly after finishing it, and wanted to go back for a quick refresher. On the second read, I wasn’t as confused – probably because I wasn’t reading to kids and was able to pay better attention. If you’re reading this with kids younger than the intended audience (2nd – 4th graders / 3rd grade reading level), you may want to find some pictures of the Titanic or draw a quick sketch of some things to help them follow along (ex: a profile of the Titanic showing the 4 smokestacks, how the boat tipped as it sank, where it broke in half, etc.).
Overall, this was a good book, though I’m not as excited with it as I was with the first four in the series. We might revisit this after we check out some books on the Titanic from the library. Still looking forward to continuing the series!
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