Hello hello, and welcome or welcome back to my little bookish corner of the internet. Today is my stop on the blog tour for middle grade adventure, The World-Famous Nine. You can find the full TBR and Beyond schedule here.
Synopsis
In this thrilling mystery from an award-winning author, Zander is determined to do whatever it takes to save his grandmother’s nineteen-story out-of-this-world department store—perfect for fans of The Swifts and The Mysterious Benedict Society .
Zander Olinga’s grandmother is the owner of the fabled Number Nine Plaza, the spectacular nineteen-story skyscraper. The Nine, as it’s called, has everything imaginable, including a massive Ferris wheel on its rooftop, monorail tracks suspended from its ceiling, and twenty-five glass elevators. But there’s something evil looming in the shadows, and strange accidents start befalling the guests. When Zander and his friend Natasha come across a series of inscriptions hidden throughout the walls of The Nine, they discover that the clues will lead them to a magical object which protects the store’s very existence. With the future of The Nine on the line, the pair are determined to recover the mysterious object before the luxury plaza and its many guests are destroyed.
Featuring an unforgettable setting and a larger-than-life cast of characters, here’s a spellbinding mystery involving puzzles, art, and high-stakes adventure.
Review
Rating: 3 stars
Over my years as a book blogger, and as a general reader, I have come across many venues and locations that I would like to visit, ranging from castles to ships. But never before have I thought that a department store might be my choice if I ever had to pick. That was before being introduced to The Nine.
The World-Famous Nine is a shop like never before. With everything you could possibly imagine and then even more, it’s the perfect place for Zander to spend the weeks with his Grandmother while his parents are away for work. He quickly finds a loyal friend in Natasha, who swings from the roof of one of the many restaurants at The Nine, and together they set about tackling the only thing that might be set to put a downer on his stay: the return of an evil presence known only as Darkbloom.
The word games and complicated names did leave me struggling at some points due to my impaired brain function, but I think these will be great for middle grade aged children. They provide a challenge when it comes to the names and phonetic learning, and the riddles and word games will really engage children with trying to make sense of them.
As Zander and Natasha venture through the many levels of The Nine, they meet many of the staff, some of whom are more helpful than others on their mission. They support one another in the challenges they’re facing, and Zander’s Grandma Zina seems so genuinely invested in his life and well-being that you can’t help but feel warm and fuzzy. The book uses the absent parent trope, but still provides Zander with a support system in his Grandma, and I really loved to see that balance written.
The many levels of the store provide the two friends with plenty of possibilities, and this is a story of word games, mysteries, adventure, but most of all, friendship.
Book Links
Good Reads
Amazon US / Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble
BookShop
About the Author
Ben Guterson is the award-winning author of The Einsteins of Vista Point, which has sold into seven languages, as well as Winterhouse, an Edgar Award and Agatha Award finalist and an Indie Next List Pick, and its sequels, The Secrets of Winterhouse and The Winterhouse Mysteries. The Winterhouse trilogy is available in eleven languages worldwide. Ben created all the intricate mandala art for The World-Famous Nine.
Author Links
Website
Twitter / X
GoodReads
Instagram
Thanks for stopping by for this post today. Be sure to check out some of the other posts linked to in the schedule link above for more about this sparkling read!
And On She Reads 