Evangeline Mudd is a lucky little girl: raised by primatologist parents in the fashion of the gentle and remarkable golden-haired apes, she grows up swinging from chandeliers, utterly and completely secure. Until her parents are given research opportunity in Ikkinasti, that is—then Evangeline is sent to stay with her awful cousin Melvin Mudd for a two-week sojourn that turns into months, until she is sprung by Dr. Aphrodite Pikkaflee, who takes her to Ikkinasti to rescue her parents. Elliot has consciously set about crafting a Quirky Tale that aspires to the Dahl-esque—but, lacking the biting edge of the master, falls far short and must settle for Cute. This cuteness quickly becomes tiresome, the initial contrived names and situations leading to more contrived names and situations that leave the reader in no doubt of Evangeline’s ultimate happy reunion with her parents and the defeat of Dr. Pikkaflee’s renegade developer brother. As the avuncular-beyond-belief narrator might say, “Have you ever eaten an entire cone of cotton candy in one sitting? That’s what reading this is like.” (Fiction. 7-10)
