ITCH ROCKS

Itchingham “Itch” Lofte is back and ready to prove that sometimes kids are better than adults at saving the world.

You’d think dropping six highly radioactive pieces of element 126 down a 1,285-foot-deep well at great personal peril would have earned Itch the right to relax for the school year. Indeed, he and his sister and their cousin have a highly skilled team from MI5 providing round-the-clock security both at home and school. But their old nemeses, Shivvi Tan Fook and Nathaniel Flowerdew, haven’t given up their pursuit of the world’s most valuable element. When the government fails to protect the people closest to him, Itch once again takes matters into his own hands. The first half of the book will feel slow for those readers who enjoyed the breakneck speed of Mayo’s first book, Itch: The Explosive Adventures of an Element Hunter (2013). Instead of outsmarting the criminals, the children turn their talents to avoiding school bullies and trying to stay out of trouble while the adults fumble their techniques for keeping the kids safe. The action heats up in the second part of the book, when Itch takes matters into his own hands and uses his keen brain and knowledge of chemical reactions to foil his pursuers.

A satisfying continuation of Itch’s adventures as an element-hunter superhero.