SECOND CHANCE

It’s been two months since Chance and Pauline Jeopard and their friend Mersey Marsh escaped Saint Philomene’s Infirmary for Magical Creatures.

The Jeopards pass the hot, boring Texas summer working on personal projects and getting acquainted with their mom’s golf-loving, Arnold Palmer–drinking boyfriend. Mersey is occupied with her new boyfriend, Killiam Ng. The siblings’ ennui comes to an abrupt halt when they have to save the underground world of Donbaloh from human folly (again). An Oppaboffian miner—a human from “up above”—wants to drill into Donbaloh’s unimaginable mineral riches in order to eradicate human poverty, but at the risk of wiping out 11 million Donbalese citizens. In order to save the realm “down below,” Chance and Pauline (with Mersey helping from aboveground) will make a treacherous 6-hour voyage along an underground river, talk their way past a bureaucratic librarian, and slide down a chute into a stinky pile of laundry, but with the help of old friends and new, both human and Donbalese, they might be able to pull it off. The worldbuilding is creative and richly detailed, and an appendix provides an overview of Donbaloh’s unusual flora and fauna. Some of the hilarious comparisons, droll humor, and pop-culture references might go over younger readers’ heads but will be greatly appreciated by others. Assume Whiteness for most human characters; Killiam’s surname cues him as Chinese.

A satisfyingly silly and fast-paced sequel.