WAITING FOR THE VOO

A 13-year-old boy and 14-year-old girl are pulled into an unexpected quest to save the universe in Ammerman’s (Anteater-Boy, 2011) comic fantasy for young readers.

When Wilkin Delgado’s dad leaves, his mom’s friend Marie and her daughter, Alice Jane, move in with them. Shortly afterward, in order to supplement their income, Wilkin finds himself having to move out of his old room so that his mom can rent it out. Their first lodger is a strange old man named Cardamon Webb, whose arrival coincides with a number of other weird events, such as piles of dust bunnies appearing out of nowhere and the moon disappearing. Shortly thereafter, Cardamon reveals himself to the kids as a “plumber”—not an ordinary one, however, but someone whose job it is to plug up all of the holes in the universe when problems occur, such as demons from other dimensions bleeding through into our world. He enlists Wilkin and Alice Jane’s help to restore everything to normal. Ammerman structures this clever, engaging story as a series of alternating first-person chapters narrated by Wilkin and Alice Jane, each with a strong voice whose authenticity and humor provide a sharp, deliberate contrast to the novel’s funny, fantastical occurrences. In a refreshing change of pace from the norm, these two kids, who dislike each other from the start, don’t grow to become friends by the end, which helps underscore the story’s playful bite. Over its course, characters such as Cardamon and another plumber, Philbus Trot, introduce the children to a charmingly apocalyptic mythology including the Gutrog, a terrifying reptilian creature who is the harbinger of the end times, and the Greater and Lesser Ma-Loos, other dark signs who are nonetheless apparently “cute.” This surprising tour through the universe may lack the satirical sophistication of Douglas Adams, but it often calls to mind his whimsy and comedic juxtaposition of the cosmic and the mundane.

Appealing middle-grade fantasy that doesn’t condescend; should appeal to young readers craving sci-fi adventure that is both pleasingly oddball and intelligently silly.