ESCAPE PLASTIC ISLAND

The young climate heroes from The Race To Erase (2023) are back for another adventure and once again need help from the Fifth Hero: the reader.

Friends and Climate Club members Jarrett, Malik, Freya, and Agnes have been hiding their powers—accidentally obtained when several high-tech orbs designed to destroy the air, land, water, and creatures of Earth became embedded in their hands. The kids must avoid Tommy, whose family runs the Calamity Corporation and created the orbs. Not only is Tommy trying to track down the orbs, putting the friends in constant danger, but he’s also been tasked with freezing the animals he deems ugly and blasting them into space. Tommy’s sister Lina claims that she wants to help her fellow Climate Club members, but she’s hiding something. To save the animals, the friends journey to New Plastic Island—created from waste in the ocean—but Tommy is hot on their trail. As in the first book, readers are given three real-world situations and asked to choose the more eco-friendly option in order to help the heroes and keep the story going. This, along with other page jumps (“What are you waiting for? Turn to page 48!”), feels like a cheap way to try to build momentum. There’s no central conflict; instead, the characters face one problem after the next, giving the narrative a jumbled feeling. The book also has little character development or physical descriptions.

Tedious.