THE GREATEST HEIST IN JOVIALA

When a corporation unveils a plan to move a dormant volcano to make room for an amusement park, only 11-year-old Shmebecca Ferguson sees a problem.

Of all the happy folk in the peaceful (if earthquake-prone) land of Joviala, only Shmebecca objects to having her beloved Mount Saint Helenhunt forcibly relocated by Shmebenezer Eyebrows, the genial head of the Fun Corporation. He intends to use a magical artifact known as the Muffin of Glory. So it is that with the help of Candelabra Dangling, Bobert Bougainvillea, and other exchange students from the neighboring Kingdom of Nefaria, where evil schemes are a way of life, she contrives a complex plan to steal the Muffin. The stage is set for a mad, hilarious scramble, devastating betrayal, and ultimate vindication when the ambitious construction project sets off certain Natural Inconveniences of a wildly explosive sort. Along with concocting another front-runner in the silly names department, Alsaid follows on The Bravest Warrior in Nefaria (2023) by dishing up a tectonically active round of kids vs. oblivious grown-ups. Driven by conflicting loyalties, hidden agendas, and deeply felt friendships weathering hard tests, the story flows in a leisurely if sometimes comically fraught way toward a thoroughly satisfying resolution. The cast, as in the opener, is racially ambiguous.

Droll and, notwithstanding severe danger and widespread destruction, delightful.