THE MOST SPECTACULAR TRAVELING BOX

This mashup of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz follows a desperate girl’s escapades.

Young Sophie Mae Bastrop is in a bad way. It’s the middle of not just the Depression, but also the Dust Bowl. After her beloved Grandma Hattie dies, she tries to survive alone on the farm in Drycrop, Oklahoma. A mysterious box arrives, and it transports her to Gardenia, the estate of her late great-aunt in Evenland, Minnesota. Gardenia is a peculiar place under the sway of the alchemist George the Great Cain. Here, magic rules. Thanks to George’s potions, eating is unnecessary, invisibility is commonly practiced, and extraordinary creatures abound, like Mary Louise, the talking elephant, and Leggy, the giraffe. There is also Ernest Wade, a shadowy figure who used to be George’s assistant but is now banished from Gardenia. Something is not right, but who’s the bad guy? George or Ernest? Of course it eventually gets sorted out. Bell is clearly enjoying herself, which is always good. And Sophie Mae is appropriately spirited. One theme that runs through the book is her need for a place to belong, for a real family. Things move along quickly, and there are amusing effects, such as an ex–circus bear that can fly and other thaumaturgies. It should be pointed out that even the putative villains are more misguided than evil (Ernest was not a very good alchemist; he cut corners), an important lesson. There is a Hooverville near Gardenia, and both George and Ernest want to help the unfortunates living there. Cultural touchstones pop up regularly. For example, there is a place in the Gardenia mansion that is very much like Star Trek’s Holodeck, and when Ernest becomes righteously enraged, he resembles, appropriately, the Hulk. Bell deploys delightfully strange verb choices, almost Tom Swift–ian (“ ‘I beg your pardon,’ she flustered”). The subtitle is A Sophie Mae Adventure, so presumably this bodes for more in the series, one that will be welcomed by fans of the fantastic.

A fun, inventive, and mostly well-written middle-grade novel.