CONNECT THE DOTS

What are the odds of a life-or-death mystery in Elk Grove Park, Illinois?

Sixth graders Oliver Beane, whose parents divorced last year, and Frankie Figge, whose working parents often leave him in charge of his twin toddler brothers, will never be popular. When a new, weird girl named Matilda Sandoval moves to town and sort of befriends them, it seems a good fit. But she is sure someone is surveilling Oliver. It can’t have anything to do with the mysterious disappearance of Preston Oglethorpe, their middle school’s eccentric-genius namesake, can it? The trio decides to find him themselves and sort things out. Oglethorpe’s research into chaos theory had given him a mechanism to predict—even influence—events using mathematical equations. Some odd things are happening around town: There’s a rock band forming in the old folks’ home and a new man in Oliver’s mother’s life. Is there a pattern? Maybe the kids aren’t the only ones on Oglethorpe’s trail...and the competition may be deadly. Following A Drop of Hope (2019), Calabrese’s smartly written sophomore effort is a Rube Goldberg–ian romp sure to please brainy kid readers with its trio of protagonists. All the kid characters have real-world problems on top of dealing with a possibly evil genius and wannabe supervillains, grounding the narrative nicely. Some Spanish surnames notwithstanding, the cast appears to be a mostly white one.

There are plenty of surprises in this caper with heart.