ALLISTER BANKS AND THE RUBY BLADE

An anthropomorphic alligator searches for relics around the world while imparting financial advice in this middle-grade novel.

Allister Banks is an alligator. Not the kind of gator readers are used to, but one who walks upright, talks, and is an Indiana Jones–type hero who travels the globe searching for rare relics. He and his fellow reptiles live in Gator City on a continent called Alligatros; use the Alligatros internet; and work at places like Gator States Bancorp. Allister works in the bank in the present day, but his adventures begin with a flashback, when he and his friend Maxitrillion Greenback are searching for a relic called the Jade Scarab. They find it, lose it, and have a falling-out only to cross paths—along with an archivist named Christina—two years later on the hunt for the Ruby Blade, a sword also known as Excalibur. The bulk of the book focuses on this pursuit, but it’s an escapade with a twist. Sprinkled throughout are financial lessons, from sections on expenses and income to others on loans and financial advisers. There are 20 financial lessons, which start with the basics: “A credit card is a tool that allows you to borrow money from a company in order to buy things.” It’s an odd marriage of financial help and quest tale, particularly for the young readers for which this book is written. They will certainly respond well to Allister’s exploits, filled with fights and creatures like poisonous beetles. Payne has created an imaginative world, although the nearly 450-page tome drags in places. This story is definitely an epic, as Allister travels extensively and deals with the human world and the secrets surrounding the famous sword. Some readers will be put off by the financial lessons, which occasionally seem to materialize out of nowhere, but others will delight in the author’s inventiveness. It is a bit of “a spoonful of sugar”—young readers enjoying Allister’s heroics may learn something about finances in the process.

An engaging mix of escapades and financial advice.